o 

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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

IRVINE 


FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
R.  BENNETT  WEAVER 


EDITED  BY 

GEORGE   RICE   CARPENTER,  A.B. 

PROFESSOR  OP  RHETORIC  AND   ENGLISH  COMPOSITION   IN  COLUMBIA  OOLLB6B 


LORD  MACAULAY 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 


LONGMANS'  ENGLISH  CLASSICS 

Edited  by  GEORGE  RICE  CARPENTER,  A.B., 

Professor  of  Rhetoric  and  English  Composition  in  Columbia  University. 


With  Notes,  Introductions,  Bibliographies,  Portraits,  and  other  Explanatory 
and  Illustrative  Matter.     Crown  8vo. 

MILTON'S  PARADISE  LOST.  BOOKS  I.  AND  II. 
Edited  by  Edward  Everett  Hale,  Jr.,  Ph.D.,  Pro- 
fessor  of  Rhetoric  and  Logic  in  Union  College. 

POPE'S  HOMER'S  ILIAD.  BOOKS  I..  VI..XXII., 
AND  XXIV.  Edited  by  William  H.  Maxwell. 
A.M.,  City  Superintendent  of  Schools,  NYw 
York,  and  Percival  Chubb,  of  the  Ethical  Cult- 
ure Schools,  New  York. 

SCOTT'S  WOODSTOCK.  Edited  by  Bliss  Perry. 
A.M.,  Professor  of  Oratory  and  yfcsthetic  Criti- 
cism in  Princeton  University. 

SCOTT'S  IVANHOE.  Edited  by  Bliss  Perry,  A.M., 
Professor  of  Oratory  and  Esthetic  Criticism  in 
Princeton  University. 

SCOTT'S  THE  LADY  OF  THF.  LAKE.  Edited 
with  Notes  and  an  Introduction  by  George  Rice 
Carpenter,  Professor  of  Rhetoric  and  English 
Composition  in  Columbia  University 


BURKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH 
AMERICA.  Edited  by  Albert  S.  Cook,  Ph.D., 
L.H.D.,  Professor  of  the  English  Language 
and  Literature  in  Yale  University. 

CARLYLE'S  ESSAY  ON  BURNS.  Edited  by 
Wilson  Farrand,  A.M.,  Associate  Principal  of 
the  Newark  Academy,  Newark,  N.  J. 

COLERIDGE'S  THE  RIME  OF  THE  ANCIENT 
MARINER.  Edited  by  Herbert  Bates,  A.B., 
late  of  the  University  of  Nebraska,  Instructor 
in  English  in  the  Manual  Training  High 
School,  Brooklyn. 

COOPER'S  THE  LAST  OF  THE  MOHICANS. 
Edited  by  Charles  F.  Richardson,  Ph.  D., 
Winkley  Professor  of  the  English  Language 
and  Literature  in  Dartmouth  College. 

DEFOE'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  PLAGUE  IN  LON- 
DON. Edited  by  Professor  G.  R.  Carpenter, 
of  Columbia  University. 

DE  QUINCEY'S  FLIGHT  OF  A  TARTAR  TRIBE 

(REVOLT  OF  THE  TARTARS).  Edited  by 
Charles  Sears  Baldwin,  Ph.D.,  Assistant  Pro- 
fessor of  Rhetoric  in  Yale  University. 

DRYDEN'S  PALAMON  AND  ARCITE.  Edited 
by  William  T.  Brewster,  A.M.,  Tutor  in 
Rhetoric  in  Columbia  University. 

GEORGE  ELIOT'S  SILAS  MARNER.  Edited  by 
Robert  Herrick,  A.B.,  Assistant  Professor  of 
Rhetoric  in  the  University  of  Chicago. 

GOLDSMITH'S  THE  VICAR  OF  WAKEFIELD, 
Edited  by  Mary  A.  Jordan,  A.M.,  Professor  of 
Rhetoric  and  Old  English  in  Smith  College. 

IRVING'S  OLIVER  GOLDSMITH.  Edited  by 
Lewis  B.  Semple,  Ph.D.,  Teacher  of  English  in 
the  Commercial  High  School,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

IRVING'S  TALES  OF  A  TRAVELLER,  with  an 
Introduction  by  Brander  Matthews,  Professor 
of  Literature  in  Columbia  University,  and 
Explanatory  Notes  by  the  general  editor  of  the 
series. 

MACAULAY'S  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON. 
Edited  by  H.  G.  Buehler,  and  ESSAY  ON 
ADDISON,  Edited  by  J.  G.  Croswell.  In  one 

MACAULAY'S  ESSAYS  ON  MILTON  AND  ADDI- 
SON. Edited,  with  Notes  and  Introduction, 
by  James  Greenleaf  Croswell,  A.B.,  Head  Mas- 
ter of  the  Brearley  School,  New  York. 

MACAULAY'S  ESSAY  ON  MILTON.  Edited  by 
James  Greenleaf  Croswell,  A.B.,  Head  Master 
of  the  Brearley  School,  New  York. 

MACAULAY'S  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON. 
Edited  by  the  Rev.  Huber  Gray  Buehler,  of  the 
Hotchkiss  School,  Lakeville,  Conn. 

MILTON'S  I, 'ALLEGRO,  IL  PENSEROSO, 
COMUS,  AND  LYCIDAS.  Edited  by  William 
P.  Trent,  A.M.,  Professor  of  English  in  the 
University  of  the  South. 


SCOTT'S  MARMION.  Edited  by  Robert  Morss 
Lovett,  A.B.,  Assistant  Professor  of  English  in 
the  University  of  Chicago. 

SHAKSPERE'S  JULIUS  CAESAR.  Edited,  with 
Introduction  and  Notes,  by  George  C.  D.  Odell, 
Ph.D.,  Tutor  in  Rhetoric  and  English  Composi- 
tion in  Columbia  University. 

SHAKSPERE'S  MACBETH.  Edited  by  John 
Matthews  Manly,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  English 
in  the  University  of  Chicago. 

SHAKSPERE'S  MERCHANT  OF  VENICE.  Ed- 
ited  by  Francis  B.  Gummere,  Ph.D.,  Professor 
of  English  in  Haverford  College. 

SHAKSPERE'S  As  You  LIKE  IT.  With  an  In- 
troduction by  Barrett  Wendell.  A.li.,  Assistant 
Professor  of  English  in  Harvard  University,  and 
Notes  by  William  Lyon  Phelps,  Ph.  D.,  Assist- 
ant Professor  of  English  in  Yale  University. 

SHAKSPERB'S  A  MIDSUMMER  NIGHT'S 
DREAM.  Edited  by  George  Pierce  Baker, 
A.B.,  Assistant  Professor  of  English  in  Harvard 
University. 

THE  SIR  ROGER  DE  COVERLEY  PAPERS,  from 
••  The  Spectator."  Edited  by  D.  O.  S.  Lowell,  A. 
M., of  the  Roxbury  Latin  School,  Roxbury.Mass. 

SOUTHEY'S  LIFE  OF  NELSON.  Edited  by  Ed- 
win L.  Miller,  A.M.,  of  the  Englewood  High 
School,  Illinois. 

TENNYSON'S  GARETH  AND  LYNETTE,  LANCE- 
LOT AND  ELAINE  and  THE  PASSING  OF 
ARTHUR.  Edited,  with  Notes  and  an  Intro- 
duction, by  Sophie  Chantal  Hart,  M.A.,  Asso. 
ciate  Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  Wellesley  College. 

TENNYSON'S  THE  PRINCESS.  Edited  by 
George  Edward  Woodberry,  A.B.,  Professor  of 
Literature  in  Columbia  University. 

WEBSTER'S  FIRST  BUNKER  HILLORATION, to- 
gether with  other  Addresses  relating  to  the  Rev- 
olution. Edited  by  Fred  Newton  Scott,  Ph.D., 
Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  the  University  of 
Michigan. 


SAMUEL  JOHNSON 
(After  the  painting  by  John  Opie) 


Congmans1  (English  Classics 


MACAULAY'S 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 


EDITED 

WITH  NOTES  AND  AN  INTRODUCTION 
BY 

HUBER   GRAY   BUEHLER,  A.M. 

HEAD  MASTER  OF  THE  HOTCHKIS8  SCHOOL  (LAKEVILL.E,   CONN.) 


NEW  YORK 
LONGMANS,  GREEN,  AND  CO. 

LONDON   AND  BOMBAY 

1905 


COPYRIGHT,  18% 

BY 
LONGMANS,  GREEN,  AND  CO. 

All  rights  reserved 


PIBST  EDITION,  JULY,  1896 

RKPKINTBD,  JANUARY  AND  JULY,  1897 

AUGUST.  1903.     APRIL,  1905 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION:  PAGE 

I.    MACAULAY'S  LIFE  AND  WORKS        ....  ix 

II.     MACAULAY'S  STYLE  AND  GENIUS      .              ..,.        .  xxiv 

III.     MACAULAY  ON  JOHNSON xxxiii 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  TEACHERS  AND  STUDENTS     ....  xxxvi 

EXAMINATION  QUESTIONS xliv 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE — MACAULAY xlvi 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE — JOHNSON    ......  li 

LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 1 

EXPLANATORY  NOTES 45 

CRITICAL  NOTE                  65 


INTRODUCTION 

I.  MACAULAY'S  LIFE  AND  WORKS.  * 

THOMAS  BABINGTON  MACAULAY,  the  most  popular 
English  essayist  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  also  a  dis- 
tinguished orator,  statesman,  and  historian,  was  born  in 
Leicestershire,  England,  October  25,  1800;  the  years  of 
his  life  therefore  coincide  with  those  of  the  century.  He 
was  descended  on  his  father's  side  from  Scotch  Presbyte- 
rians; on  his  mother's  side,  from  a  Quaker  family;  and  to 
his  earnest  and  accomplished  parents  he  owed  many  admir- 
able traits  of  character.  His  father,  a  silent,  austere, 
pious  man,  was  a  leader  in  the  Society  for  the  Abolition 
of  Slavery;  edited  the  newspaper  of  the  Abolitionist  So- 
ciety; and  numbered  among  his  intimate  friends,  who 
often  met  round  his  table  and  discussed  in  the  presence  of 
his  children  the  right  and  wrong  of  great  political  ques- 

1  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Macaulay,  by  his  nephew,  G. 
Otto  Trevelyan,  is  one  of  the  best  biographies  ever  written ;  and  all 
who  can  should  make  their  acquaintance  with  Macaulay's  career 
from  the  pages  of  that  fascinating  work.  Unlike  some  standard 
books,  it  is  interesting  and  inspiring  to  young  readers  as  well  as  to 
old,  and  it  should  be  put  within  reach  of  all  students  of  Macaulay's 
writings.  The  best  short  life  of  Macaulay  is  that  by  J.  Cotter  Morrison 
in  the  English  Men  of  Letters  Series.  Mr.  Morrison's  book,  which 
costs  little,  contains  only  six  chapters,  of  which  three  are  biographical 
and  three  critical ;  the  biographical  chapters  can  be  read  by  them- 
selves in  two  or  three  hours.  Those  who  cannot  read  the  charming 
Life  and  Letters  should  by  all  means  read  Mr.  Morrison's  little  book. 
The  sketch  of  Macaulay's  life  here  given  is  only  for  those  who  can- 
not do  even  that. 


x  INTRODUCTION 

tions,  the  distinguished  philanthropist  William  Wilber- 
force,  who  did  more  than  any  other  man  to  secure  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  slave  trade. 

Macaulay's  mother,  to  whom  he  perhaps  owed  more 
than  to  his  father,  was,  according  to  Mr.  Morrison,  "a 
woman  of  warm-hearted  and  affectionate  temper,  yet  clear- 
headed and  firm  withal,  and  with  a  good  eye  for  the  influ- 
ences which  go  to  the  formation  of  character."  When, 
for  instance,  her  sou,  who  liked  to  read  at  home  better 
than  to  study  at  school,  declared  the  weather  to  be  too  bad 
to  "go  to  school  to-day,"  his  mother  would  say:  "No, 
Tom;  if  it  rains  cats  and  dogs  you  shall  go."  When  he 
brought  to  her — as  he  often  did — childish  compositions  in 
prose  and  verse  that  were,  as  Miss  Hannah  More  said, 
"  quite  extraordinary  for  such  a  baby,"  she  refrained  from 
expressions  of  surprise  which  might  have  made  him  vain, 
and  appeared  to  take  as  a  matter  of  course  his  remarkable 
performances,  which  secretly  astonished  and  delighted  her. 
Yet,  when  he  fell  ill,  she  nursed  him  with  a  loving  tender- 
ness that  he  remembered  all  his  life.  Nothing  indicates 
Mrs.  Macaulay's  influence  over  her  son  better  than  a  letter 
which  she  wrote  to  him  when  he  was  a  boy  at  school : — 

CLAPHAM,  May  28,  1813. 

My  dear  Tom :  I  am  very  happy  to  hear  that  you  have 
so  far  advanced  in  your  different  prize  exercises,  and  with 
such  little  fatigue.  I  know  you  write  with  great  ease  to 
yourself,  and  would  rather  write  ten  poems  than  prune 
one;  but  remember  that  excellence  is  not  attained  at  first. 
All  your  pieces  are  much  mended  after  a  little  reflection, 
and  therefore  take  some  solitary  walks,  and  think  over 
each  separate  thing.  Spare  no  time  or  trouble  to  render 
each  piece  as  perfect  as  you  can,  and  then  leave  the  event 
without  one  anxious  thought.  I  have  always  admired  a 
saying  of  one  of  the  old  heathen  philosophers.  When  a 
friend  was  condoling  with  him  that  he  so  well  deserved  of 
the  gods,  and  yet  that  they  did  not  shower  their  favors  on 


INTRODUCTION 


xi 


him,  as  on  some  others  less  worthy,  he  answered,  "  I  will, 
however,  continue  to  deserve  well  of  them."  So  do  you, 
my  dearest.  Do  your  best,  because  it  is  the  will  of  God  you 
should  improve  every  faculty  to  the  utmost  now,  and 
strengthen  the  powers  of  your  mind  by  exercise,  and  then 
in  future  you  will  be  better  enabled  to  glorify  God  with  all 
your  powers  and  talents,  be  they  of  a  more  humble  or 
higher  order,  and  you  shall  not  fail  to  be  received  into 
everlasting  habitations,  with  the  applauding  voice  of  your 
Saviour,  "Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant."  You 
see  how  ambitious  your  mother  is.  She  must  have  the 
wisdom  of  her  son  acknowledged  before  angels  and  an 
assembled  world.  My  wishes  can  soar  no  higher,  and  they 
can  be  content  with  nothing  less  for  any  of  my  children. 
The  first  time  I  saw  your  face,  I  repeated  those  beautiful 
lines  of  Watts's  cradle  hymn : 

Mayst  thou  live  to  know  and  fear  Him, 

Trust  and  love  Him  all  thy  days, 
Then  go  and  dwell  forever  near  Him, 

See  His  face,  and  sing  His  praise ; 

and  this  is  the  substance  of  all  my  prayers  for  you.     In  less 
than  a  month  you  and  I  shall,  I  trust,  be  rambling  over 
the  Common,  which  now  looks  quite  beautiful. 
I  am  ever,  my  dear  Tom,  your  affectionate  mother, 

SELIXA  MACAULAY. 

Under  the  care  of  these  plain-living,  high-thinking 
parents,  Macaulay  passed  a  happy  childhood.  From  the 
time  that  he  was  three  years  old,  he  gave  proof  of  a  remark- 
able literary  faculty.  He  read  incessantly,  for  the  most 
part  lying  on  the  rug  before  the  fire,  with  his  book  on  the 
floor,  and  a  piece  of  bread  and  butter  in  his  hand.  He  did 
not  care  for  toys,  but  Avas  very  fond  of  taking  his  walk, 
when  he  would  hold  forth  to  his  companion,  whether  nurse 
or  mother,  telling  interminable  stories  out  of  his  head,  or 
repeating  what  he  had  been  reading.  Before  he  was  eight 
years  old  he  wrote  for  his  own  amusement  a  ''  Compendium 
of  Universal  History,"  which  filled  about  a  quire  of  paper 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

and  gave  a  tolerably  connected  view  of  leading  events  from 
the  Creation  to  1800.  Among  his  many  other  literary 
ventures  at  this  time  was  a  poem  in  the  style  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  which  was  suggested  by  his  delight  in  reading  the 
"Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel"  and  "Marmion."  This 
stanza  is  a  specimen  of  the  style  of  the  eight-year-old 
poet : — 

"Day  set  on  Cambria's  hills  supreme, 
And,  Menai,  on  thy  silver  stream. 
The  star  of  day  had  reached  the  west. 
Now  in  the  main  it  sunk  to  rest. 
Shone  great  Eleindyn's  castle  tall : 
Shone  every  battery,  every  hall : 
Shone  all  fair  Mona's  verdant  plain ; 
But  chiefly  shone  the  foaming  main." 

These  productions  of  Macaulay's  childhood — histories, 
epic  poems,  hymns — though  correct  in  spelling,  grammar, 
and  punctuation,  were  dashed  off  at  headlong  speed. 

At  the  age  of  twelve  the  precocious  boy  was  sent  to  an 
excellent  small  school  at  Shelford,  near  Cambridge,  where 
he  was  painfully  homesick,  but  where,  in  an  atmosphere 
pervaded  with  the  influence  of  the  neighboring  univer- 
sity, he  laid  the  foundations  of  his  scholarship.  No  school- 
boy should  omit  to  read  Macaulay's  letters  home  during 
this  period;  for  nowhere  else  are  some  of  the  character- 
istics of  this  remarkable  man  so  clearly  seen  as  in  the  letters 
and  exercises  of  his  school  and  college  days.  In  athletic 
games  he  was  not  expert;  his  life  was  absorbed  in  books, 
though  not  always  in  schoolbooks.  His  favorite  reading 
throughout  life  was  poetry  and  prose  fiction,  and  at  school 
he  often  indulged  this  excessive  fondness  for  pleasant  read- 
ing to  the  neglect  oT  more  bracing  studies.  He  especially 
disliked  mathematics  and  the  exact  sciences,  writing  to  his 
mother:  "Oh  for  words  to  express  my  abomination  of 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

that  science  [mathematics].  .  .  .  Discipline  of  the 
mind!  Say  rather  starvation,  confinement,  torture,  anni- 
hilation! "  Macaulay  lived  to  change  his  mind  and  deeply 
regret  this  mistake  of  his  school-days.  Many  years  after- 
ward he  wrote:  "  I  often  regret,  and  even  acutely,  my  want 
of  a  senior  wrangler's  *  knowledge  of  physics  and  mathe- 
matics; and  I  regret  still  more  some  habits  of  mind  which 
a  senior  wrangler  is  pretty  certain  to  possess."  In  fact, 
the  grave  consequences  of  young  Macaulay's  one-sided 
inclination  for  literature  can  be  traced  throughout  his 
career.  Poetry,  history,  and  fiction,  read  fast  and  chiefly 
for  pleasure's  sake,  were  very  poor  discipline  for  a  mind  in 
which  fancy  and  imagination  were  already  strong;  and 
some  faculties  of  Macaulay's  mind,  for  want  of  proper 
exercise,  remained  always  weak.  Critics  point  out,  even 
in  his  best  writings,  a  "want  of  philosophic  grasp,"  a 
"dislike  of  arduous  speculation,"  a  "superficial  treat- 
ment of  intellectual  problems." 

From  the  little  school  at  Shelford,  Macaulay  went,  in 
1818,  to  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  He  failed  to  secure 
the  highest  university  honors  because  of  his  repugnance 
to  mathematics;  but  he  showed  his  classical  and  literary 
attainments  by  taking  the  prize  for  Latin  declamation, 
by  twice  gaining  the  chancellor's  medal  for  English  verse, 
and  by  winning  a  scholarship.  In  the  Union  Debating 
Society  he  soon  distinguished  himself  as  one  of  the  best 
debaters  in  the  university,  and  in  Cambridge  social  circles 
he  became  known  as  one  of  the  most  brilliant  conversers 
in  England.  Day  or  night  he  was  always  ready  to  talk, 
and  such  talk !  ' '  Never  were  such  torrents  of  good  talk 
as  burst  and  sputtered  over  from  Macaulay  and  Hallam." 
"  The  greatest  marvel  about  him  is  the  quantity  of  trash 
he  remembers."  "Macaulay's  flow  of  talk  never  ceased 

1  "Senior  Wrangler"  is  the  name  given  to  the  student  who  ranks 
first  in  the  honor  list  at  Cambridge  University. 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

once  during  the  four  hours."     These  are  extracts  from  the 
journals  of  some  who  heard  him. 

But  it  was  not  only  "  trash  "  that  Macaulay  remembered, 
for  he  seems  to  have  remembered  nearly  everything  he 
read,  often  getting  by  heart  long  passages  that  pleased  him 
merely  from  his  delight  in  reading  them  over.  When  a 
child  he  once  accompanied  his  father  on  an  afternoon  call, 
and  found  on  the  table  a  copy  of  Scott's  "  Lay  of  the  Last 
Minstrel,"  which  he  had  not  seen  before.  He  kept  himself 
quiet  with  his  prize  while  the  elders  were  talking,  and 
when  he  returned  home,  sitting  down  on  his  mother's 
bed,  he  repeated  to  her  canto  after  canto.  When  he  was 
fifty-seven  years  old  he  learned  by  heart  in  two  hours  the 
fourth  act  of  the  "Merchant  of  Venice,"  except  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  lines,  which  he  already  knew.  He  once  said 
that  if  all  copies  of  "Paradise  Lost"  and  "The  Pil- 
grim's Progress  "  should  be  destroyed,  he  could  reproduce 
them  from  memory.  This  extraordinary  memory  remained 
with  Macaulay  to  the  last,  and  is  the  wonder  and  despair 
of  his  readers.  It  is  the  more  remarkable  because  he  read 
very  rapidly.  "  He  read  books  faster  than  other  people 
skimmed  them,  and  skimmed  them  as  fast  as  any  one  else 
could  turn  the  leaves. "  And  he  read  omnivorously.  Except 
when  he  was  talking,  writing,  or  engaged  in  public  busi- 
ness, he  hardly  passed  a  waking  hour  without  a  book  before 
him.  Speaking  of  a  journey  from  England  to  Ireland, 
he  says,  "As  I  could  not  read,  I  used  an  excellent  substi- 
tute for  reading.  I  went  through  '  Paradise  Lost,'  in  my 
head."  Latin,  Greek,  French,  Italian,  Spanish,  English 
— it  was  all  one.  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  books  he 
went  through  in  the  original  language  while  on  a  voyage 
to  India  at  the  age  of  thirty-four:  Homer's  "Iliad  "  and 
"  Odyssey;"  Virgil's  "^Eneid,"  "  Eclogues,"  and  "  Geor- 
gics;"  Horace's  poems;  Caesar's  "  Commentaries;"  Bacon's 
"De  Augmentis;"  the  works  of  Dante,  Petrarch,  Ariosto, 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

and  Tasso;  "Don  Quixote;"  Gibbon's  "Rome;"  Mill's 
"  India;"  all  the  seventy  volumes  of  Voltaire;  Sismondi's 
"History  of  France;"  and  seven  large  volumes  of  the 
"  Biographia  Britannica. " 

Macaulay's  wonderful  memory  was  a  most  useful  endow- 
ment; but  his  habit  of  incessant  and  omnivorous  reading 
was  something  of  a  defect.  Emerson  remarks  that  the 
means  by  which  the  soul  attains  its  highest  development  are 
books,  travel,  society,  solitude;  the  first  three  Macaulay 
used,  but  solitude  he  neglected.  He  never  gave  himself 
time  to  think  hard  and  deeply.  Kemarkable  as  his  writings 
are,  they  would  have  been  still  more  valuable,  perhaps,  if 
he  had  read  less  and  reflected  more.  His  brilliant  works 
sometimes  lack  meditation  and  thoughtful  ness. 

After  his  graduation  from  Trinity  (1822)  Macaulay 
remained  at  Cambridge,  pursuing  post-graduate  studies 
for  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  and  in  1824,  after  an 
examination  in  which  he  stood  first  among  the  candidates, 
he  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  that  is,  one  of 
the  sixty  masters  of  the  college,  with  an  income  of  $1,500 
a  year  for  seven  years.  In  1826  he  was,  as  the  English 
say,  called  to  the  Bar;  but  he  did  not  take  kindly  to 
the  law,  got  little  or  no  practice,  and  soon  laid  aside  his 
law  books  to  devote  himself  exclusively  to  literature  and 
politics. 

In  literature  he  had  become  distinguished  even  before 
he  left  Cambridge,  partly  by  his  college  essays  and  poems, 
but  more  by  his  contributions,  when  a  Bachelor  of  Arts, 
to  Knight's  Quarterly  Magazine.  Of  these  contributions, 
two  battle  poems,  "  Ivry  "  and  "Naseby,"  are  still  read 
with  pleasure.  "  Fragments  of  a  Roman  Tale "  and 
"  Scenes  from  the  Athenian  Revels  " — attempts  to  picture 
the  private  life  of  bygone  days — suggest  that  Macaulay 
might  have  written  admirable  historical  novels.  The 
"  Conversation  between  Mr.  Abraham  Cowley  and  Mr. 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

John  Milton,"  which  was  his  own  favorite  among  his  early 
writings,  is,  in  the  minds  of  many,  superior  in  style  and 
diction  to  anything  that  he  wrote  in  later  life.  But  Ma- 
caulay's  real  literary  fame  began  in  1825,  when  he  wrote  his 
first  essay  for  the  Edinburgh  Review.  This  famous  Review 
was  at  that  time  the  leading  periodical  in  Great  Britain, 
and  exerted  a  literary  and  political  influence  never  equalled 
before  or  since.  To  be  admitted  to  its  pages  was  the 
highest  compliment  that  could  be  paid  a  young  writer,  and 
Macaulay  was  invited  to  write  for  it.  His  first  contribu- 
tion was  the  celebrated  "  Essay  on  Milton."1  As  criti- 
cism, this  Essay  has  little  value,  for  Macaulay  was  never 
a  subtle  or  profound  critic,  capable  of  analyzing  and  ex- 
hibiting the  beauties  of  literary  masterpieces;  but  as  a 
piece  of  writing  it  is  extraordinary,  and  it  at  once  arrested 
the  attention  of  the  public.  Jeffrey,  the  editor  of  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  wrote :  ' '  The  more  I  think,  the  less  I 
can  conceive  where  you  picked  up  that  style."  Murray, 
the  publisher,  declared  that  it  would  be  worth  the  copy- 
right of  Byron's  "  Childe  Harold  "  to  have  the  writer  on 
the  staff  of  the  Quarterly  Review,  the  Tory  rival  of  the 
Edinburgh.  The  Macaulay  breakfast  table  was  covered 
with  cards  from  the  most  distinguished  personages  in  Lon- 
don society,  inviting  the  brilliant  young  essayist  to  dinner. 
He  was  courted  and  admired  by  the  most  distinguished 
persons  of  the  day,  and  from  that  time  on  was  one  of  the 
"lions"  of  London  society;  for  London  soon  discovered 
what  Cambridge  knew  before,  that  he  was  one  of  the  most 
entertaining  conversers  in  the  world. 

The  "  Essay  on  Milton"  was  but  the  beginning  of  a 
long  series  of  more  than  forty  articles — critical,  historical, 
and  controversial — which  were  contributed  during  the  next 
twenty  years  to  the  Edinburgh  Review,  and  made  their 
author  the  best  known  essayist  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

'See  Mr.  CroswelFs  edition  of  the  Essay  on  Milton  in  this  series. 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

The  last  Review  article  was  the  "  Essay  on  the  Earl  of 
Chatham,"  published  in  1844. 

But  these  famous  essays,  so  far  from  being  Macaulay's 
main  occupation,  were,  in  fact,  struck  off  in  hastily 
snatched  moments  of  leisure — some  of  them  before 
breakfast — by  a  man  whose  time  was  chiefly  occupied  with 
the  business  of  Parliament  or  various  departments  of  the 
Government;  for  Macaulay  was  early  drawn  into  public 
life,  and  in  politics  won  immense  distinction  when  he  was 
still  a  young  man.  Mr.  Gladstone  declares  that  "except 
the  second  Pitt  and  Lord  Byron,  no  Englishman  had  ever 
won,  at  so  early  an  age,  such  wide  and  honorable  renown." 
After  two  years'  service  as  a  Commissioner  of  Bankruptcy, 
he  became,  in  1830,  a  member  of  Parliament,  through  the 
friendliness  of  a  nobleman  who  controlled  the  membership 
for  Calue.  This  was  just  at  the  beginning  of  the  great 
struggle  to  reform  the  representation  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  Macaulay  plunged  at  once  into  the  heat  of 
battle.  His  very  first  speech  in  favor  of  the  Eeform  Bill 
(1831)  placed  him  in  the  front  rank  of  orators.  The 
Speaker  sent  for  him  and  told  him  that  he  had  never  seen 
the  House  in  such  a  state  of  excitement.  Thereafter, 
whenever  he  rose  to  speak  in  Parliament,  the  remark, 
"  Macaulay  is  up,"  running  through  the  lobbies  and  com- 
mittee rooms,  was  the  signal  for  a  general  rush  to  hear  him. 
Mr.  Morrison  thinks  that  "it  may  well  be  questioned 
whether  Macaulay  was  so  well  endowed  for  any  career  as 
that  of  a  great  orator. ' ' 

•^  The  young  Whig  soon  became  an  important  member  of 
his  party,  filling  some  important  offices,  and  distinguishing 
himself  by  hard  work  and  high-minded,  unselfish  devotion 
for  the  public  good.  He  once  voted  for  a  measure  that 
took  away  his  own  office;  at  another  time  he  resigned  his 
government  position,  rather  than  hurt  his  father's  feel- 
ings by  helping  to  support  a  compromise  Slavery  Bill 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

which  his  father  did  not  approve.  All  this  time  he  was  a 
comparatively  poor  man.  When  he  first  went  to  college 
his  father  believed  himself  to  be  worth  $500,000;  but 
interest  in  public  matters  had  led  Mr.  Macaulay  to  neglect 
his  private  business;  and,  while  the  son  was  still  at  Cam- 
bridge, money  troubles  began  to  throw  their  shadow  on  the 
family.  Macaulay  received  the  news  bravely;  while  wait- 
ing for  his  fellowship,  took  private  pupils  to  relieve  his 
father  of  the  burden  of  his  expenses;  devoted  his  income 
thereafter  to  providing  for  his  sisters  and  paying  off  his 
father's  debts;  and,  hardest  of  all,  did  it  with  a  cheer- 
ful good  humor  that  brought  sunshine  again  to  the  home. 
One  of  his  sisters  says  that  those  who  did  not  know  him 
during  those  dark  days  "  never  knew  him  in  his  most  brill- 
iant, witty,  and  fertile  vein."  His  fellowship  of  $1,500 
was  very  useful  to  him,  but  it  expired  in  1831;  his  politi- 
cal office  was  swept  away  by  a  change  of  ministry ;  he  could 
not  possibly  make  more  than  $1,000  a  year  by  writing;  and 
while  he  was  winning  fame  in  Parliament  he  was  reduced 
to  such  straits  that  he  had  to  sell  a  gold  medal  he  had  won 
at  Cambridge.  When,  therefore,  in  1834,  the  post  of  legal 
adviser  to  the  Supreme  Council  of  India  was  offered  him, 
with  a  salary  from  which  he  could  in  a  few  years  save  $100,- 
000,  he  accepted,  and  sailed  for  India. 

In  India  Macaulay  spent  several  years  of  hard  work. 
Besides  his  regular  official  duties,  he  accepted  the  chair- 
manships of  the  Committee  of  Public  Instruction  and  the 
Committee  to  draw  up  two  new  Codes  of  Laws  for  the 
country;  and  in  both  these  committees  he  rendered  services 
whose  good  effect  remains  to  this  day.  Among  other 
things  he  helped  to  introduce  the  study  of  European 
literature  and  science  among  the  natives  of  India.  Mean- 
while he  wrote  a  few  essays  for  the  Review,  and  read 
prodigiously. 

In  1838  he  returned  to  England.     He  was  at  once  re- 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

elected  to  Parliament  as  member  for  Edinburgh,  and  for 
the  next  ten  years  he  was  a  prominent  figure  in  the  House 
of  Commons  and  held  important  offices,  two  of  them  cabi- 
net offices.  But  from  the  time  of  his  sojourn  in  India,  his 
interest  in  politics  visibly  declined,  and  after  1848  he  sel~ 
dom  appeared  in  public  life. 

That  which  allured  Macaulay  from  politics  was  his 
famous  "  History  of  England  from  the  Accession  of  James 
II.,"  which  engrossed  most  of  his  time  and  thought  during 
the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life.  This  "  History "  is 
'*  undoubtedly  the  most  brilliant  and  the  most  popular  his- 
tory ever  written."1  The  work  is  in  five  volumes,  and 
covers  a  period  of  only  seventeen  years;  but  probably  it  has 
been  more  widely  read  than  any  other  history  in  the  English 
language.  It  shows  vast  research,  extraordinary  power  of 
narrative,  and  an  unrivalled  splendor  of  style.  It  has,  of 
course,  certain  faults;  but  with  these  we  are  not  now  con- 
cerned. The  first  two  volumes  appeared  in  1848,  and  took 
England  and  America  by  storm.  The  third  and  fourth 
volumes  were  published  in  1855.  The  fifth  volume,  un- 
finished, was  published  after  the  death  of  the  author. 
Within  a  generation  of  its  first  appearance,  one  hundred 
and  forty  thousand  copies  of  the  "  History  "  were  sold  in 
Great  Britain  only.  In  America  no  other  book  except  the 
Bible  ever  had  such  a  sale.  It  was  translated  into  German, 
Polish,  Danish,  Swedish,  Hungarian,  Russian,  Bohemian, 
Italian,  French,  Dutch,  Spanish,  and  Persian.  In  a  single 
check  Macaulay  received  from  his  English  publishers,  as 
part  of  his  share  of  the  proceeds,  the  amazing  sum  of 
$100,000. 

Two  other  literary  works  of  our  author  remain  to  be 
noticed.  "Lays  of  Ancient  Rome" — a  series  of  martial 
ballads — was  published  in  1842.  But  poetry  with  Ma- 
caulay was  rather  a  recreation  than  a  serious  business,  and 
1  C.  K.  Adams,-  Manual  of  Historical  Literature,  p.  463. 


xx  INTRODUCTION 

these  stirring  tales  in  verse,  though  admirable  and  widely 
popular,  are  not  so  important  as  his  other  achievements. 

The  last  of  Macaulay's  writings  was  a  group  of  biograph- 
ical sketches,  written  during  the  later  years  of  his  life  for 
the  "Encyclopaedia  Britannica,"  after  he  had  ceased  to 
write  for  the  Review,  and  while  he  was  busy  with  •  his 
"History."  These  were  the  articles  on  Atterbury,  Bun- 
yan,  Goldsmith,  Doctor  Johnson,  and  William  Pitt,  which 
are  still  to  be  found  under  those  titles  in  the  present  (ninth) 
edition  of  the  ' '  Britannica. "  The  "  Life  of  William  Pitt ' ' 
was  the  last  of  Macaulay's  writings  published  during  his 
life-time.  These  "Lives,"  especially,  perhaps,  the  "Life 
of  Doctor  Johnson,"  which  is  the  subject  of  this  volume, 
are  among  the  best  of  his  works. 

During  his  last  years  honors  fell  thick  and  fast  on  Macau- 
lay's  head.  He  was  elected  to  many  positions  of  distinction 
and  honor,  and  in  1857  he  was  made  a  peer  of  the  House 
of  Lords — the  first  literary  man  to  receive  that  distinc- 
tion. But  he  never  spoke  in  the  House  of  Lords.  For  a 
number  of  years  before  his  death  his  health  was  frail.  He 
died  at  his  residence,  Holly  Lodge,  Kensington,  December 
28,  1859,  of  heart  disease.  Two  months  before,  he  wrote 
in  his  diary  :  "  October  25,  1859.  My  birthday.  I  am 
fifty-nine  years  old.  Well,  I  have  had  a  happy  life.  I  do 
not  know  that  any  one  whom  1  have  seen  close  has  had  a 
happier."  He  is  buried  in  the  Poet's  Corner  in  West- 
minster Abbey. 

Macaulay  was  an  upright,  amiable  man,  and  his  life 
was  one  of  placid  content  and  quiet  happiness.  "No  act 
inconsistent  with  the  strictest  honor  and  integrity  has 
ever  been  imputed  to  him."1  "We  cannot  imagine  him 
doing  anything  wrong,  or  even  indecorous." 2  He  enjoyed 
the  good  things  of  life  with  heartiness,  yet  he  was  strik- 

1  Mark  Pattison. 
*J.  C.  Morrison. 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

ingly  unselfish,  aud  one  of  the  most  prominent  qualities 
revealed  in  his  "Letters"  is  a  sweet,  affectionate  tender- 
ness for  his  friends.  His  domestic  life  was  singularly 
beautiful.  Even  his  keenest  literary  critics  speak  with 
admiration  of  his  bearing  towards  his  parents,  his  sisters, 
and  his  nephews  and  nieces.  To  the  latter  he  was  an  ideal 
uncle — the  "  good  uncle  "  of  story  books.  When  he  died, 
his  sister  wrote:  "  We  have  lost  the  light  of  our  home,  the 
most  tender,  loving,  generous,  unselfish,  devoted  of  friends. 
What  he  was  to  me  for  fifty  years  who  can  tell  ?  What  a 
world  of  love  he  poured  out  upon  me  and  mine."  His 
only  domestic  fault,  according  to  his  nephew,  seems  to 
have  been  that  he  did  not  like  dogs  !  His  very  last  act 
was  to  write  a  letter  to  a  poor  curate,  enclosing  a  check  for 
twenty-five  pounds. 

His  personal  appearance  is  thus  described  by  his  nephew, 
Mr.  Trevelyan: 

"  Macaulay's  outward  man  was  never  better  described 
than  in  two  sentences  of  Praed's  Introduction  to  Knight's 
Quarterly  Magazine.  '  There  came  up  a  short,  manly  fig- 
ure, marvellously  upright,  with  a  bad  neckcloth,  and  one 
hand  in  his  waistcoat  pocket.  Of  regular  beauty  he  had 
little  to  boast;  but  in  faces  where  there  is  an  expression 
of  great  power,  or  of  great  good-humor,  or  both,  you  do 
not  regret  its  absence.'  This  picture,  in  which  every 
touch  is  correct,  tells  all  that  there  is  to  be  told.  He  had 
a  massive  head,  and  features  of  a  powerful  and  rugged 
cast;  but  so  constantly  lighted  up  by  every  joyful  and  enno- 
bling emotion  that  it  mattered  little  if,  when  absolutely 
quiescent,  his  face  was  rather  homely  than  handsome. 
While  conversing  at  table,  no  one  thought  him  otherwise 
than  good  looking;  but  when  he  rose,  he  was  seen  to  be 
short  and  stout  in  figure.  .  .  .  He  at  all  times  sat 
aud  stood  straight,  full,  and  square;  and  in  this  respect 
Woolner,  in  the  fine  statue  at  Cambridge,  has  missed  what 
was  undoubtedly  the  most  marked  fact  in  his  personal 
appearance.  He  dressed  badly,  but  not  cheaply.  His 
clothes,  though  ill  put  on,  were  good," 


INTRODUCTION 

Of  his  manner  in  conversation  Mr.  Trevelyan  says: 

"  Whatever  fault  might  be  found  with  Macaulay's  ges- 
tures as  an  orator,  his  appearance  and  bearing  in  conversa- 
tion were  singularly  effective.  Sitting  bolt  upright,  his 
hands  resting  on  the  arms  of  his  chair  or  folded  over  the 
handle  of  his  walking-stick;  knitting  his  great  eyebrows  if 
the  subject  was  one  that  had  to  be  thought  out  as  he  went 
along,  or  brightening  from  the  forehead  downwards  when  a 
burst  of  humor  was  coming;  his  massive  features  and 
honest  glance  suited  well  with  the  manly,  sagacious  senti- 
ments which  he  set  forth  in  his  pleasant,  sonorous  voice, 
and  in  his  racy  and  admirably  intelligible  language." 

Macaulay's  method  of  work  is  thus  described  by  his 
nephew : 

"  The  main  secret  of  Macaulay's  success  lay  in  this,  that 
to  extraordinary  fluency  and  facility  he  united  patient, 
minute,  and  persistent  diligence.  He  well  knew,  us  Chau- 
cer knew  before  him,  that 

There  is  na  workeman 
That  can  bothe  worken  wel  and  hastilie. 
This  must  be  done  at  leisure  parfaitlie. 

"  If  his  method  of  composition  ever  comes  into  fashion, 
books  probably  will  be  better,  and  undoubtedly  will  be 
shorter.  As  soon  as  he  had  got  into  his  head  all  the  in- 
formation relating  to  any  particular  episode  in  his  '  History  ' 
(such,  for  instance,  as  Argyll's  expedition  to  Scotland,  or 
the  attainder  of  Sir  John  Fenwick,  or  the  calling  in  of  the 
clipped  coinage),  he  would  sit  down  and  write  off  the  whole 
story  at  a  headlong  pace;  sketching  in  the  outlines  under 
the  genial  and  audacious  impulse  of  a  first  conception; 
and  securing  in  black  and  white  each  idea,  and  epithet, 
and  turn  of  phrase,  as  it  flowed  straight  from  his  busy 
brain  to  his  rapid  fingers.  His  manuscript,  at  this  stage, 
to  the  eyes  of  any  one  but  himself,  appeared  to  consist  of 
column  after  column  of  dashes  and  flourishes,  in  which  a 
straight  line  with  a  half  formed  letter  at  each  end,  and 
another  in  the  middle,  did  duty  for  a  word.  .  .  . 


INTRODUCTION 


"  As  soon  as  Macaulay  bad  finished  his  rough  draft,  he 
began  to  fill  it  in  at  the  rate  of  six  sides  of  foolscap  every 
morning;  written  in  so  large  a  hand,  and  with  such  a  mul- 
titude of  erasures,  that  the  whole  six  pages  were,  on  an 
average,  compressed  in  two  pages  of  print.  This  portion 
he  called  his  '  task,  '  and  he  was  never  quite  easy  unless  he 
completed  it  daily.  More  he  seldom  sought  to  accomplish  ; 
for  he  had  learned  by  long  experience  that  this  was  as 
much  as  he  could  do  at  his  best;  and  except  when  at  his 
best,  he  never  would  work  at  all. 

"  Macaulay  never  allowed  a  sentence  to  pass  muster  until 
it  was  as  good  as  he  could  make  it.  He  thought  little  of 
recasting  a  chapter  in  order  to  obtain  a  more  lucid  arrange- 
ment, and  nothing  whatever  of  reconstructing  a  paragraph 
for  the  sense  of  one  happy  stroke  or  apt  illustration. 
Whatever  the  worth  of  his  labor,  at  any  rate  it  was  a  labor 
of  love." 

Macaulay's  essays  may  be  thus  conveniently  classified  : 

1.  English  History  Group.  —  Milton;1  Hallam  (one  of 
the  best)  ;  John  Hampden  ;  Burleigh  and  his  Times  (one 
of  the  weakest)  ;  Horace  Walpole  (unjust)  ;  William  Pitt, 
Earl  of  Chatham  (1834;  incomplete);  The  Earl  of  Chat- 
ham (completes  the  story  of  Chatham's  life);  Sir  James 
Mackintosh  ;  Sir  William  Temple  (one  of  the  best)  ;  Lord 
Clive;  Warren  Hastings.      (The  last  two  are  among  the 
most  famous  of  the  essays.) 

2.  Foreign    History    Group.  —  Machiavelli;    Mirabeau; 
War  of  the  Succession  in  Spain;    Von  Kanke   (the  real 
subject  is  the  "History  of  the  Popes";  the  third  para- 
graph is  widely  celebrated);  Frederick  the  Great;  Barere. 

3.  Controversial  Group.  —  Mill's  Theory  of  Government 
(three  essays);  Saddler's  Law  of  Population  (two  essays); 
Southey's  Colloquies  on  Society;  Gladstone  on  Church  and 
State.     (These  controversial  essays  possess  but  little  per- 
manent interest.) 

4.  Critical  Group.  —  John  Dryden;  History;  Montgom- 

1  See  Mr.  Croswell's  edition  in  this  series. 


INTRODUCTION 

ery;  John  Bunyan  (1830);  Lord  Byron  (discusses  the 
nature  of  poetry);  Boswell's  "  Life  of  Johnson"  (1831); 
Lord  Bacon  (the  poorest  of  them  all) ;  Leigh  Hunt  (the  real 
subject  is  "  The  Comic  Dramatists  of  the  Restoration"); 
Madame  D'Arblay;  Addison  (which  Thackeray  calls  "a 
magnificent  statue  of  the  great  writer  and  moralist  "). 

5.  Biographical  Group. — (All  written  for  the  "  Ency- 
clopaedia Britannica. ")  Francis  Atterbury;  John  Bunyan 
(1854);  Oliver  Goldsmith;  Samuel  Johnson  (1856);  Will- 
iam Pitt  (son  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham).  \ 

II.  MACAULAY'S  STYLE  AND  GENIUS. 

WITH  Macaulay's  characteristics  as  orator,  poet,  and 
historian  we  are  not  now  concerned;  for  the  subject  of  our 
present  study  brings  him  before  us  as  an  essayist  only,  in 
which  character,  perhaps,  he  is  most  widely  known.  His 
essays,  of  which  a  classified  list  is  given  above,  cover 
a  very  wide  range  of  subjects.  In  them  Macau  lay  had 
something  to  say,  directly  or  indirectly,  about  nearly  all 
the  important  persons  and  events  in  history.  For  a  busy 
man  of  only  moderate  education,  who  has  curiosity  to 
know  a  little  about  the  great  lives  and  great  thoughts  of 
the  past,  the  "Essays"  are  as  good  as  a  library.1  They 
are  somewhat  unequal  in  merit,  those  written  after  the 
author's  return  from  India  being  in  some  respects  better 
than  those  written  before  his  departure  from  England ;  but 
taken  as  a  whole  they  are  the  most  famous  essays  ever 
written  in  English.  They  have  been  read  by  millions, 
and  thousands  of  copies  are  still  sold  every  year.  If  we 
except  Shakespeare's  plays  and  Scott's  novels,  they  have 
probably  done  more  to  stimulate  interest  in  the  past  than 
any  other  books.  All  that  many  persons  know  of  history 
they  have  learned  from  Macaulay's  "Essays."  Other 

1  ^Ir.  John  Morley. 


INTRODUCTION  xxv 

works  on  the  same  subjects  may  be  more  profound  and 
more  exhaustive,  but  none  are  so  easily  understood  and  so 
readily  enjoyed  by  the  masses.  As  powerful,  popular 
sketches  of  great  subjects  from  history  and  literature,  they 
are  unrivalled;  and  we  can  easily  believe  the  traveller  in 
Australia  who  said  that  the  three  books  which  he  found  on 
every  squatter's  shelf  were  Shakespeare,  the  Bible,  and 
Macaulay 's  "  Essays." 

An  author  who  has  thus  made  the  history  of  politics 
and  letters  interesting  to  millions  is  no  ordinary  writer. 
The  general  public,  in  fact,  is  disposed  to  think  that  Ma- 
caulay  is  not  only  a  great  writer,  but  one  of  the  very 
greatest;  and  it  is  certain  that  in  many  admirable  qualities 
he  has  never  been  surpassed.  Yet  some  expert  judges, 
examining  the  Essays  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
highest  criticism,  find  much  fault  with  the  judgment  of 
the  general  public,  and  declare  Macaulay  to  be  over- 
praised. The  fact  seems  to  be  that  those  who  admire  the 
Essays  and  those  who  find  fault  with  them  are  thinking 
of  different  things.  The  inexpert  masses  delight  in  read- 
ing them  because  of  certain  admirable  qualities  in  which 
they  have  never  been  excelled ;  expert  critics,  passing  these 
admirable  qualities  by  with  hasty  recognition,  point  to 
some  serious  shortcomings.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this 
Introduction  to  help  the  student  to  see  both  the  merits  and 
the  faults  of  Macaulay  as  an  essayist. 

What,  then,  is  the  secret  of  Macaulay's  astonishing 
popularity?  'As  we  turn  his  pages  one  of  the  very  first 
things  that  impress  us  is  the  vast  and  accurate  knowledge 
of  literature  and  history  with  which  his  mind  was  evidently 
stored.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  things  about  Ma- 
caulay was  the  number  of  things  he  knew  and  knew  well. 
He  seems  to  his  readers  to  know  by  heart  every  book  that 
was  ever  written,  to  be  acquainted  with  the  details  of  every 
incident  in  history,  and  to  have  at  his  fingers'  end  every 


xxvi  INTRODUCTION 

trait  and  anecdote  of  every  important  person  that  ever 
lived;  for,  whatever  his  subject,  he  pours  over  it  with  aston- 
ishing ease  a  flood  of  illustrations,  comparisons,  and  con- 
trasts drawn  from  the  literature  of  all  languages  and  the 
history  of  all  countries.  His  store  of  information  seems 
inexhaustible;  his  prose,  like  Milton's  poetry,  is  "  freighted 
with  the  spoils  of  all  ages."1  Macaulay's  style,  it  has 
been  truly  said,  is  before  all  else  the  style  of  great  literary 
knowledge;  and  the  ordinary  reader  who  would  follow 
intelligently  the  allusions  which  are  scattered  over  almost 
every  page  of  the  Essays  must  keep  his  reference  books 
constantly  at  his  elbow.  When  we  lay  down  the  Essays 
we  involuntarily  ask  ourselves,  "  Was  there  anything  this 
man  did  not  know  ?  "  As  a  matter  of  fact  Macaulay  knew 
very  little  about  philosophy,  and  his  books  contain  few  ref- 
erence, to  the  astonishing  discoveries  of  modern  natural 
science;  but  we  forget  these  limitations  in  the  presence  of 
his  wonderful  literary  and  historical  information.  This  is 
the  first  secret  of  his  wide-spread  fame.  Just  as  AVC  like  to 
listen  to  the  conversation  of  a  well-informed  person,  so  we 
like  to  read  Macaulay's  Essays,  for  from  them  we  learn 
a  great  many  things  with  very  little  trouble. 

Another  reason  for  Macaulay's  popularity  is  the  manner 
in  which  he  conveys  his  knowledge  to  the  reader.  Many 
learned  men  are  dull  authors;  Macaulay  is  one  of  the  most 
agreeable.  He  had  in  a  remarkable  degree  the  power  of 
pleasing  by  the  very  manner  of  his  writing,  and  however 
dry  his  subject,  he  always  contrived  to  write  what  persons 
like  to  read.  The  charm  of  a  writer's  style,  like  grace  in  a 
person's  bearing,  is  a  difficult  thing  to  analyze  and  explain; 
it  is  a  subtle  something  which  we  feel,  though  we  can 
hardly  describe  it;  yet  some  qualities  of  the  style  of  this 
brilliant  writer  are  so  obvious  that  they  can  easily  be  set 
forth. 

1  Mark  Pattison. 


INTRODUCTION  xxvii 

For  one  thing,  his  language  is  always  absolutely  clear. 
Above  all  things  he  was  resolved  to  be  understood,  and  it 
is  doubtful  whether  he  ever  wrote  an  obscure  sentence. 
He  never  for  a  moment  leaves  the  reader  in  doubt  as  to 
what  he  means,  and  he  seems  to  have  made  it  his  first  care 
to  write  not  only  what  could  be  understood,  but  what  must 
be  understood.  He  economizes  our  attention,  as  Herbert 
Spencer  would  say,  by  using  language  through  which  we 
see  his  ideas  as  we  see  objects  through  fine  plate  glass — 
without  the  slightest  effort.  Macaulay  sacrificed  some- 
thing to  gain  this  crystalline  clearness;  yet  clearness  is 
certainly  the  first  essential  of  good  writing. 

Then,  too,  Macaulay's  style  is  always  lively,  his  tone 
hearty  and  strong.  His  writing  has  much  of  the  rush  and 
eloquence  which  belonged  to  his  oratory,  and  it  swings  our 
attention  along  by  the  mere  impetuosity  of  its  movement. 
His  learning  never  clogs  his  story  or  his  explanation;  he 
is  always  moving  forward ;  and  the  reading  of  his  pages 
brings  much  of  the  exhilaration  that  comes  with  all  rapid 
motion.  A  great,  strong  man,  knowing  everything,  and 
telling  us  many  things  with  perfect  clearness  in  a  lively 
manner  and  a  full  round  voice — such  is  Macaulay  to  the 
readers  of  his  Essays. 

These  and  other  qualities  make  Macaulay  one  of  the 
best  story-tellers  that  ever  lived.  Others  have  surpassed 
him  in  intellectual  depth,  in  moral  insight,  and  in  some 
other  valuable  qualities;  but  in  the  mere  art  of  telling  a 
story  in  a  clear  and  interesting  way,  he  has  no  rival.-  "  He 
is  unequalled  in  our  time  in  his  mastery  of  the  art  of  let- 
ting us  know  in  an  express  and  unmistakable  way  exactly 
what  it  was  that  happened."1  His  narratives,  to  use  a 
common  expression,  "  read  like  novels  ; "  that  is  to  say, 
by  the  clearness  of  his  pictures  and  the  vivacity  of  his 
story,  he  makes  persons  and  events  of  the  past  as  real  and 
1  Mr.  Juhu  Morley. 


INTRODUCTION 


interesting  as  a  skilful  novelist  makes  the  creatures  of  his 
imagination.  We  see  a  figure  from  the  eighteenth  century 
as  vividly  as  if  he  were  present,  and  seem  to  understand 
everything  that  happened  as  if  we  had  been  there.  And 
so  easily  is  all  this  done  that  the  story  seems  to  tell  itself. 
As  the  reader  sees  and  understands  with  perfect  ease,  so 
there  is  no  trace  of  effort  on  the  part  of  the  author. 

Macaulay,  then,  knew  a  marvellous  number  of  interest- 
ing things,  which  he  imparts  to  the  reader  in  a  most  lively 
and  attractive  manner,  being,  in  fact,  one  of  the  best 
story-tellers  that  ever  lived.  To  these  qualities  which 
make  him  a  favorite  with  the  masses  must  be  added  the 
fact  that  he  never  perplexes  his  readers  with  deep  thinking. 
His  writings  are  full  of  strong,  English  common-sense; 
but  of  profound  reflection  and  close,  subtle  reasoning  there 
is  no  trace.  Anything  that  would  be  hard  for  an  ordinary 
man  of  business  to  understand  is  carefully  avoided;  every- 
thing is  looked  at  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  middle 
classes,  who  cannot  understand  philosophers,  and  do  not 
care  to  do  overmuch  thinking.  He  deals,  not  in  the  ab- 
stract, but  in  the  concrete.  Into  the  higher  regions  of 
thought  he  never  goes.  His  mind  moves  along  a  middle 
plane,  where  the  masses  can  easily  follow,  and  this  is  an- 
other reason  why  the  masses  like  to  read  him. 

Macaulay's  want  of  aspiration,  of  all  effort  to  rise  into 
the  higher  regions  of  thought,  has  lost  him  the  good 
opinion  of  some  readers,  and  is  the  first  of  those  shortcom- 
ings which  expert  critics  consider  grave  faults.  "He  is 
one  of  the  most  entertaining,  but  also  one  of  the  least 
suggestive,  of  writers."  He  "did  nothing  to  stir  the 
deeper  mind  or  the  deeper  feelings  of  his  multitude  of 
readers."  "He  never  had  anything  to  say  on  the  deeper 
aspects  and  relations  of  life;  and  it  would  not  be  easy  to 
quote  a  sentence  from  either  his  published  works  or  private 
letters  which  shows  insight  into  or  meditation  on  love,  or 


INTRODUCTION  xxjx 

marriage,  or  friendship,  or  the  education  of  children,  or 
religion."  "His  learning  is  confined  to  book  lore;  he  is 
not  well  read  in  the  human  heart,  and  still  less  in  the 
human  spirit."  "  His  strength  lay  not  in  thinking  but  in 
drawing."  These  are  some  of  the  criticisms  made  with 
perfect  truth  by  such  critics  as  Walter  Bagehot,  Cotter 
Morrison,  Mr.  John  Morley,  and  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen.1 
"Compare  him  with  a  calm,  meditative,  original  writer 
like  De  Quincey,  and  you  become  vividly  aware  of  his 
peculiar  deficiency,  as  well  as  his  peculiar  strength;  you 
find  a  more  rapid  succession  of  ideas  and  greater  wealth  of 
illustration,  but  you  miss  the  subtle  casuistry,  the  exact 
and  finished  similitudes,  and  the  breaking  up  of  routine 
views.  No  original  opinion  requiring  patient  considera- 
tion or  delicate  analysis  is  associated  with  the  name  of  Ma- 
caulay.  It  better  suited  his  stirring  and  excitable  nature 
to  apply  his  dazzling  powers  of  expression  and  illustration 
to  the  opinions  of  others."2 

This  lack  of  depth  in  Macaulay's  thinking  is  most 
noticeable,  perhaps,  in  his  sketches  of  character.  It  has 
been  justly  said  that  no  one  else  describes  so  well  the  spec- 
tacle of  a  character,  for  Macaulay  can  always  tell  what 
people  said,  what  they  did,  what  they  looked  like;  but  lie 
had  "  no  eye  for  the  deeper  springs  of  character,  the  finer 
shades  of  motive."  3  "  He  can  draw  a  most  vivid  portrait, 
so  far  as  can  be  done  by  a  picturesque  accumulation  of 
characteristic  facts;  but  he  never  gets  below  the  surface."4 
He  can  describe  graphically  exterior  life,  but  his  insight 
into  men's  bosoms  is  not  deep.  "  Some  portion  of  the 
essence  of  human  nature  is  concealed  from  him;  but  all 
its  accessories  are  at  his  command."5  "  Macaulay  never 

I  See  Bibliography,  p.  xl. 

II  Minto,  Manual  of  English  Prose  Literature. 

3  J.  C.  Morrison.  4  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen. 

6  Walter  Bagehot. 


XXX 


INTRODUCTION 


stops  to  brood  over  an  incident  or  a  character,  with  an  inner 
eye  intent  on  penetrating  to  the  lowest  depth  of  motive 
and  cause,  to  the  furthest  complexity  of  impulse,  calcula- 
tion, and  subtle  incentive.  The  spirit  of  analysis  is  not 
in  him.  His  whole  mind  runs  in  action  and  movement; 
it  busies  itself  with  eager  interest  in  all  objective  particu- 
lars. He  is  seized  by  the  external  and  the  superficial,  and 
revels  in  every  detail  that  appeals  to  the  five  senses."1 
"  It  may  be  noticed  that  the  remarkable  interest  he  often 
awakens  in  a  story,  which  he  tells  so  admirably,  is  nearly 
always  the  interest  of  adventure,  never  the  interest  of 
psychological  analysis.  Events  and  outward  actions  are 
told  with  incomparable  clearness  and  vigor — but  a  thick 
curtain  hangs  before  the  inward  theatre  of  the  mind,  which 
is  never  revealed  on  his  stage."2 

Another  quality  which  hurts  Macaulay  in  the  opinion 
of  men  who  are  accustomed  to  careful  aiid  accurate  think- 
ing, though  it  is  another  reason  for  his  popularity  with  the 
masses,  is  the  extreme  positiveness  which  pervades  his 
writings.  He  represents  everything  as  absolutely  certain, 
and  "goes  forward  with  a  grand  confidence"  in  himself, 
his  facts,  and  his  opinions,  which  is  delightful  to  many, 
but  displeasing  to  those  who  know  how  extremely  uncertain 
just  these  very  things  are.  Macaulay  is  a  "dealer  in 
unqualified  propositions." 3  However  much  obscurity  may 
envelop  a  fact  of  history  or  a  subject  in  literature,  he 
"marches  through  the  intricacies  of  things  in  a  blaze  of 
certainty."  This  confident  tone  is  partly  the  expression 
of  Macaulay's  character,  for  he  was  a  man  of  very  positive 
convictions;  but  it  is  also,  perhaps,  a  rhetorical  quality 
cultivated  in  the  interest  of  .absolute  clearness  to  the  ordi- 

A^       ,         PV^Vft*-*; 

nary  mind.      "  Eschewing  high  thought  on  the  one  hand, 
and  deep  feeling  on  the  other,  he  marched  down  a  middle 
road  of  resonant  commonplace,  quite  certain  that  where 
1  Mr.  John  Morley.  s  J.  C.  Morrison.  *  Mr.  Morley. 


INTRODUCTION  xxxi 

'  Bang,  whang,  whang,  goes  the  drum, 
And  tootle-tee-tootle  the  fife,' 

the  densest  crowd,  marching  in  time,  will  follow  the 
music."1  A  dense  crowd  has,  indeed,  followed  Macau- 
lay's  drum  and  trumpet  style  with  great  satisfaction;  but 
persons  of  highly  cultivated  taste  are  disposed  to  stop  their 
ears  in  the  presence  of  his  resounding,  banging  phrases. 
Pattison  well  expressed  the  feeling  of  this  class  of  readers 
when  he  said:  "He  has  a  constant  tendency  to  glaring 
colors,  to  strong  effects,  and  will  always  be  striking  violent 
blows.  He  is  not  merely  exuberant,  but  excessive.  There 
is  an  overwhelming  confidence  about  his  tone;  he  expresses 
himself  in  trenchant  phrases,  which  are  like  challenges  to 
an  opponent  to  stand  up  and  deny  them.  His  propositions 
have  no  qualifications.  Uninstructed  readers  like  this 
assurance,  as  they  like  a  physician  who  has  no  doubt  about 
their  case.  But  a  sense  of  distrust  grows  upon  the  more 
circumspect  reader  as  he  follows  page  after  page  of  Ma- 
caulay's  categorical  affirmations  about  matters  which  our 
own  experience  of  life  teaches  us  to  be  of  a  contingent 
nature.  We  inevitably  think  of  a  saying  attributed  to 
Lord  Melbourne,  '  I  wish  I  were  as  cock-sure  of  any  one 
thing  as  Macaulay  is  of  everything.'  "2 

This  is  what  critics  mean  when  they  speak  of  Macaulay's 
inaccuracy.  It  is  not  that  his  memory  is  at  fault  or  that 
his  learning  is  inadequate,  but  that  the  rush  and  the  vigor 
of  his  thought  lead  him  occasionally  into  sweeping  asser- 
tions which  are  really  exaggerations.  His  writings  abound 
in  superlative  expressions;  his  style  is  marked  by  a  wonder- 
ful vigor  that  sometimes  overshoots  the  mark.  When  a 
difficult  question  crosses  his  path,  he  disposes  of  it  in  a 
dashing  way  with  some  simple,  easy  answer,  which  every- 
one can  understand,  but  which  more  profound  thinkers 
perceive  to  be  inadequate  and  unsatisfactory.  It  is  cer- 
1 J.  C.  Morrison.  *  Encyclopedia  Britannica. 


xxxii  INTRODUCTION 

tain,  however,  that  Macaulay  was  never  intentionally  inac- 
curate, and  that  he  never  knowingly  called  black  white,  or 
white  black.  He  is  a  thoroughly  honest,  manly  writer; 
and  his  exaggerations  are  only  manifestations  of  that  hearti- 
ness which  was  a  part  of  his  strong  character. 

To  sum  up,  Macaulay,  as  Mr.  Frederick  Harrison  has 
remarked,  has  led  millions  who  read  no  one  else,  or  who 
never  read  before,  to  know  something  of  the  past,  and  to 
enjoy  reading.  Let  us  be  thankful  for  his  energy,  learning, 
brilliance.  He  is  no  priest,  philosopher,  or  master;  but 
let  us  delight  in  him  as  a  companion.  In  one  thing  all 
agree — critics  and  the  public,  friends  and  opponents — 
Macaulay's  was  a  life  of  purity,  honor,  courage,  generosity, 
affection,  and  manly  perseverance,  almost  without  a  stain  or 
a  defect.  His  was  a  fine,  generous,  honorable,  and  sterling 
nature.  His  books  deserve  their  vast  popularity;  but  Ma- 
caulay must  not  be  judged  among  philosophers  nor  even 
among  the  greatest  masters  of  the  English  language.  He 
stands  between  philosophic  historians  and  the  public  very 
much  as  journals  and  periodicals  stand  between  the  masses 
and  great  libraries.  Macaulay  is  a  glorified  journalist 
and  reviewer,  who  brings  the  matured  results  of  scholars 
to  the  man  in  the  street  in  a  form  that  he  can  remember 
and  enjoy,  when  he  could  not  make  use  of  a  learned  book. 
He  performs  the  office  of  the  ballad-maker  or  story-teller 
in  an  age  before  books  were  common.  And  it  is  largely 
due  to  the  influence  of  his  style  that  the  best  journals  and 
periodicals  of  our  day  are  written  in  a  style  so  clear,  so 
direct,  so  resonant.1 

The  technical  elements  of  Macaulay's  style  can  be  profit- 
ably studied  only  in  connection  with  the  text  of  his  writ- 
ings; all  discussion  of  such  matters  is  therefore  reserved 
for  the  Notes. 

1  This  paragraph  is  based,  with  some  changes,  upon  a  portion  of 
Mr.  Harrison's  article  in  The  Forum  for  September,  1894. 


INTRODUCTION  xxxiii 


III.  MACAULAY  ON  JOHNSON. 

MACAULAT  wrote  two  articles  on  Samuel  Johnson, 
twenty- five  years  apart,  and  very  different  in  character. 
The  first  appeared  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  in  September, 
1831,  as  a  review  of  J.  W.  Croker's  edition  of  "  Boswell's 
Life  of  Johnson. "  Croker 1  was  one  of  Macaulay's  political 
opponents  in  the  House  of  Commons,  twenty  years  his 
senior,  and  a  bitter  personal  enemy.  He  had  ability,  was 
Secretary  to  the  Admiralty,  and  an  enthusiatic  student  of 
history  and  literature;  but  he  was  an  unamiable  man,  and 
in  one  of  his  speeches  had  spoken  of  Macaulay's  orations 
as  "vague  generalities  handled  with  that  brilliant  imagin- 
ation which  tickles  the  ear  and  amuses  the  fancy  without 
satisfying  the  reason."  The  purpose  and  temper  of  Ma- 
caulay's review  of  Croker's  edition  of  "  Boswell,"  may  be 
best  learned  from  several  passages  in  Macaulay's  letters. 
Three  months  before  Croker's  book  appeared,  Macaulay 
wrote  to  the  editor  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  "  I  will  cer- 
tainly review  Croker's  '  Boswell '  when  it  comes  out."  One 
week  after  the  book  was  published  he  wrote  to  his  sister : 
"  I  am  to  review  Croker's  edition  of  Bozzy.  It  is  wretch- 
edly ill  done.  The  notes  are  poorly  written  and  shame- 
fully inaccurate."  A  few  weeks  later,  after  making  an 
extemporaneous  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  he 
wrote:  "  I  ought  to  tell  you  that  Peel  was  very  civil,  and 
cheered  me  loudly;  and  that  impudent,  leering  Croker 
congratulated  the  House  on  the  proof  which  I  had  given 
of  my  readiness.  .  .  .  See  whether  I  do  not  dust  that 
varlet's  jacket  for  him  in  the  next  number  of  the  Slue 
and  Yellow.2  I  detest  him  more  than  cold  boiled  veal." 

1  See  Mr.  Miller's  edition  of  Souther's  Life  of  Nelson,  in .  this 
series,  p.  xxi.,  and  Southey's  dedication,  p.  3. 

1  The  cover  of  the  Edinburgh  Review  was  dark  blue,  with  a  yellow 
back. 


xxxiv  INTRODUCTION 

On  October  17,  1831,  after  his  article  appeared,  he  wrote  : 
"  Croker  looks  across  the  House  of  Commons  at  me  with 
a  leer  of  hatred  which  I  repay  with  a  gracious  smile  of 
pity." 

It  is  evident  that  a  review  inspired  by  this  personal 
quarrel  can  have  little  permanent  interest.  The  first 
forty  paragraphs  of  the  essay  on  "  BoswelPs  Life  of  John- 
son "  treat  only  of  Croker's  edition  of  Boswell's  celebrated 
book,  and  smack  strongly  of  personal  animosity.  In  them 
the  reviewer  dwells  at  length  and  with  relish  on  certain 
errors  in  Croker's  dates  and  genealogies,  ascribing  to  them 
an  exaggerated  importance,  and  exposing  them  in  a  way 
to  humiliate  Croker  and  make  him  out  a  dunce.  He  says 
Croker's  book  is  "as  bad  as  bad  could  be ;  "  maintains  that 
the  ' '  notes  absolutely  swarm  with  misstatements  ; "  com- 
ments in  detail  on  the  "  monstrous  blunders"  and  "  scan- 
dalous inaccuracy  ;"  and  declares  Croker  to  be  "entitled 
to  no  confidence  whatever."  Macaulay's  criticism  is 
founded  on  fact,  but  it  is  unjust  in  tone  and  emphasis. 
A  more  just,  though  still  an  unfavorable,  review  of 
Croker's  "Boswell"  will  be  found  in  Carlyle's  "  Essay" 
on  the  same  subject.  The  rest  of  Macaulay's  "  Essay 
on  Boswell's  Johnson"  consists  of  two  parts.  The 
first  treats  at  length  of  the  character  of  Boswell,  the 
second  discusses  Doctor  Johnson  himself.  These  parts  of 
the  "  Essay  "  are  marked  by  all  the  vigor  and  vivacity  of 
Macaulay's  early  style.  The  eccentricities  of  both  Bos- 
well  and  Johnson  are  set  forth  with  unexampled  clearness 
and  power;  but  combined  with  these  brilliant  qualities  of 
style  is  a  tendency  to  exaggeration,  a  lack  of  insight  into 
character,  and  a  superficial  treatment  of  difficult  prob- 
lems, which  make  the  "  Essay  "  unjust  to  both  Johnson 
and' his  satellite. 

The  second  of  Macaulay's  articles  on  Johnson,  and  by 
fur  the  best,  is  the  "  Life  of  Samuel  Johnson,"  written  in 


INTRODUCTION  xxxv 

1856  for  the  "Encyclopaedia  Britannica,"  and  retained  in 
tlie  present  edition  of  that  standard  work.  In  this  "  Life," 
written  when  his  style  was  matured  and  when  his  resources 
were  in  all  their  fulness,  we  have  Macaulay  at  his  very 
best.  The  tone  is  moderate,  the  language  is  chaste,  and 
though  there  is  little  appreciation  of  Johnson's  inner 
character,  the  external  husk  of  the  man  is  delineated  in  a 
masterly  way. 


SUGGESTIONS    FOR     TEACHERS     AND 
STUDENTS 

MACAULAY'S  "  Life  of  Johnson  "  is  a  sketch  of  the  cen- 
tral literary  figure  of  the  eighteenth  century,  by  one  of  the 
most  accomplished  literary  artists  of  the  nineteenth;  both 
its  subject-matter  and  its  form,  therefore,  demand  the 
careful  attention  of  the  student  of  English  literature. 
Persons  of  disciplined  mind  and  trained  judgment  may 
study  both  at  once,  but  young  students,  with  whom  all 
reading  is  more  or  less  difficult,  cannot  well  attend  to  more 
than  one  thing  at  a  time.  If  they  are  required  to  spend 
their  little  store  of  mental  energy  on  unfamiliar  words,  his- 
torical and  literary  allusions,  and  still  to  follow  the  progress 
of  the  author's  thought,  observe  his  plan,  and  note  the  de- 
tails of  his  diction,  they  are  almost  sure  to  do  nothing  well, 
and,  even  worse  than  that,  to  grow  weary  of  literary  study 
. — a  sorry  outcome  of  a  course  of  training  the  object  of  which 
is  to  foster  love  for  good  reading.  That  all  things  may  bo 
done  well,  it  seems  best  to  do  one  thing  at  a  time;  the 
notes  in  this  volume  have  therefore  been  separated  into 
two.  groups:  Explanatory  Notes,  for  use  in  the  student's 
first  reading,  and  a  Critical  Note,  for  use  in  later  readings. 

The  following  suggestions  are  offered  to  those  who  may 
have  no  better  plan  of  their  own. 

I.  The  first  step  in  the  study  of  such  a  piece  of  writing 
as  Macaulay's  "  Life  of  Samuel  Johnson,"  is  to  make  the 
acquaintance  of  the  author.  This  can  most  satisfactorily 
be  done  from  one  or  more  of  the  biographies  of  Macau  lay 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  TEACHERS  AND  STUDENTS  xxxvii 

mentioned  below,  and  teachers  who  have  time  and  oppor- 
tunity will  do  well  to  require  as  supplementary  reading 
either  Trevelyan's  "Life  and  Letters,"  or  Mr.  Morrison's 
brief  "Life."  When  this  is  not  practicable,  at  least  as 
much  of  Macaulay's  life  and  work  as  is  contained  in  the 
Introduction  to  the  present  volume  should  be  mastered 
by  the  student  before  he  takes  up  the  "  Life  of  Johnson." 
At  least  one  recitation  period  may  well  be  used  in  an 
examination,  oral  or  written,  on  the  chief  points  in  Ma- 
caulay's life,  and  the  general  merits  and  faults  which  his 
writing  may  be  expected  to  disclose. 

II.  When  the  student  has  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Macaulay,  he  is  ready  to  begin  the  "Life  of  Johnson." 
Here,  obviously,  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to  read  the  text  so 
as  to  understand  it;  for  clear  understanding  must  come  be- 
fore critical  appreciation.  During  this  first  reading,  im- 
mature students  should  not  be  bothered  with  literary  criti- 
cism beyond  what  their  own  taste  or  judgment  may  suggest 
to  them.  They  should  be  left  alone  with  Macaulay's  style, 
just  as  Agassiz  used  to  leave  his  pupils  alone  with  the  bit 
of  nature  which  they  were  studying,  and  for  much  the 
same  reason;  namely,  that  their  own  critical  faculties  may 
have  room  for  development.  In  order  that  their  time 
may  not  be  dissipated,  and  they  themselves  wearied  and 
disheartened  by  laborious  and  often  fruitless  searches  after 
the  meaning  of  allusions  and  names  the  relative  importance 
of  which  they  do  not  know,  a  certain  amount  of  assist- 
ance in  following  Macaulay's  numerous  references  to  his- 
tory and  literature  is  given  in  the  Explanatory  Notes. 
Macaulay  wrote  primarily,  not  for  school-boys,  but  for 
readers  of  mature  culture;  and  the  average  student  in 
secondary  schools,  even  after  he  has  received  the  help  .of 
the  Explanatory  Notes,  Avhich  treat  only  of  historical 
and  literary  allusions,  will  find  enough  of  difficulty  remain- 
ing to  occupy  his  time,  train  his  own  thinking  faculties, 


xxxviii  SUGGESTIONS  FOR  TEACHERS  AND  STUDENTS 

and  make  him  familiar  with  the  use  of  dictionaries  and 
other  books  of  reference. 

This  reading  of  the  text  with  a  view  to  grasping  its  sub- 
ject-matter should  be  done  out  of  class,  at  a  rate,  according 
to  circumstances,  of  from  four  to  ten  pages  a  lesson. 
During  the  recitation  period  the  teacher  should  assure  him- 
self, by  examinations,  oral  or  written,  or  both,  that  the 
reading  has  been  carefully  done.  One  good  plan  is  to  re- 
quire a  brief  impromptu  composition  exercise  on  some  sub- 
ject taken  from  the  lesson  but  not  announced  beforehand, 
and  to  follow  this  with  a  rapid  fire  of  oral  questions,  not 
necessarily  exhaustive,  on  the  meaning  of  words,  the  persons 
or  places  mentioned  in  the  text,  and  the  subject-matter. 
That  this  oral  questioning  may  be  rapid,  it  is  convenient 
for  the  teacher  to  underscore  in  red  or  blue  in  his  own 
book  the  subjects  which  he  wishes  to  select  as  tests  of  the 
pupils'  work.  This  questioning,  of  course,  must  not  be 
confined  to  the  subjects  treated  in  the  notes.  For  instance, 
on  page  1  of  the  "Life  of  Johnson,"  such  questions  as 
these  might  be  asked:  Mention  some  of  the  most  emi- 
nent English  writers  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Give  an 
account  of  Johnson's  father.  Where  is  Lichfield  ?  Name 
the  Midland  counties.  What  is  an  oracle  ?  The  meaning 
here  of  the  word  clergy  ?  Meaning  of  churchman  ? 
Meaning  of  municipal?'  Explain  the  sovereigns  in  posses- 
sion. Meaning  of  Jacobite  ?  Where  and  when  was 
Johnson  born?  Mention  his  peculiarities  as  a  child. 
Meaning  of  morbid,  propensity,  the  royal  touch  ?  Explain 
the  old  common  name  for  scrofula.  The  following  are 
suitable  topics  for  short  written  exercises:  Johnson's 
Father;  Johnson's  Peculiarities  as  a  Child;  The  King's 
Evil.  Written  examinations  should  be  frequent. 

After  the  teacher  has  thus  quickly  tested  the  pupil's 
work — and  tests  need  not  be  long  or  exhaustive  in  order 
to  be  thorough — what  remains  of  the  recitation  period  may 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  TEACHERS  AND  STUDENTS  xxxix 

be  occupied  with  any  interesting  matter  bearing  on  the 
general  subject.  Pictures  may  be  shown,  stories  of  John- 
son may  be  told,  reports  of  special  investigations  heard. 
Without  any  reference  to  published  criticisms,  the  pupils 
should  be  encouraged  to  form  and  express  opinions  of 
their  own  about  either  Johnson's  character  or  Macaulay's 
style.  Whether  their  opinions  are  right  or  wrong  matters 
little;  the  important  thing  is  that  they  learn  to  notice,  to 
compare,  and  to  think  for  themselves.  If  it  be  necessary 
to  correct  some  grave  error  in  opinion,  it  should  be  done 
with  great  gentleness,  so  as  not  to  frighten  timid  thinkers. 
If  some  pupils  are  over-forward  in  making  up  their  minds, 
it  will  perhaps  be  enough  to  remind  them  that  their  pres- 
ent opinions  cannot  be  regarded  as  final.  To  this  part  of 
the  recitation  belongs,  also,  the  important  work  described 
in  IV. 

III.  After  the  student  has  carefully  read  the  text  so  as 
to  master  its  subject-matter  and  to  form  some  independent 
opinion  of  the  author's  style,  he  is  ready  to  take  up  the 
critical  study  of   the  work,  and  to  rectify,  if    need  be, 
his  first  impressions.     To  assist  in  this  study  of  form  and 
structure,  a  brief  Critical  Note,  containing  a  few  general 
hints  as  to  method,  has  been  added  to  this  volume.     It 
is  by  no  means  advisable  that  preparatory  school  pupils 
should  make  anything  like  an  elaborate  study  of  anyone's 
style.     Something,  however,  may  be  accomplished  in  lead- 
ing the  student  to  imitate  the  finer  qualities  of  Macaulay's 
style,  and  to  know  what  it  is  that  he  is  doing,  and  how  he 
does  it.     Attention  should  be  fixed  on  diction,  sentence 
structure,  paragraph  structure,  and  the  arrangement  of  the 
whole  composition.     No  books  will  be  needed  for  this  work, 
except  a  good  treatise  on  rhetoric,  though  the  teacher  may 
be  glad  to  consult  Minto's  "  English  Prose  Writers  "  and 
Brewster's  "  Studies  in  Structure  and  Style." 

IV.  Some  teachers   and    students   may  be   obliged   by 


xl       SUGGESTIONS  FOR  TEA  CHERS  AND  STUDENTS 

limitations  of  time  or  opportunity  to  stop  here,  content 
with  a  mastery  of  the  subject-matter  and  some  insight  into 
the  peculiarities  of  the  author's  style;  but  the  most  valu- 
able fruit  of  the  study  of  Macaulay's  "  Life  of  Johnson  " 
yet  remains  to  be  gathered.  The  real  opportunity  of 
both  teacher  and  student  lies  in  the  fact  that  Johnson  is 
the  central  literary  figure  of  the  later  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, and  that  Macaulay's  "Life,"  because  of  its  many 
allusions  and  cross  references,  is  one  of  the  best  starting 
points  for  a  study  of  that  interesting  period  in  the  history 
of  English  life  and  letters.  Into  that  rich  field  the 
"  Life  of  Johnson  "  should  be  the  gate.  Though  men- 
tioned last,  this  study  may  go  along  with  the  work  described 
in  I.  and  II.  Subjects  for  special  investigation  should 
be  assigned  to  different  pupils,  and  compositions  on  them 
read  before  the  class.  Books,  or  chapters  in  books,  may 
be  appointed  for  supplementary  or  home  reading.  The 
student  who,  taking  the  "  Life  of  Johnson  "  us  a  starting 
point,  will  read  along  the  lines  suggested  by  Macaulay's 
allusions,  will  be  surprised  to  find  how  his  horizon  will  be 
enlarged  and  his  thinking  be  enriched.  To  assist  in  this 
important  part  of  the  study,  a  fairly  full  list  of  books  has 
been  given  in  the  Bibliography,  and  a  few  hints  for  the 
guidance  of  the  student  have  been  embodied  in  the  Critical 
Note. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

1.  Macaulay.  The  authorized  edition  of  Macaulay's 
Works  is  that  edited  by  his  sister,  Lady  Trevelyan,  and  pub- 
lished in  eight  volumes  by  Longmans,  Green,  and  Co.  The 
same  publishers  issue  various  cheap  editions  of  the  several 
works.  The  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Macaulay, "  2  vols., 
by  his  nephew,  Sir  G.  Otto  Trevelyan,  is  the  standard  biog- 
raphy, and  a  most  readable  book.  The  story  of  Macau- 
lay's  connection  with  the  Edinburgh  Review  mav  be  traced 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  TEACHERS  AND  STUDENTS     xli 

in  "  Selections  from  the  Correspondence  of  the  late  Mac- 
vey  Napier."  The  best  short  biography  is  by  J.  Cotter 
Morrison  in  the  English  Men  of  Letters  Series.  Still 
shorter  are  the  articles  on  Macaulay  in  the  "  Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica,"  by  Mark  Pattison,  and  in  the  "Dic- 
tionary of  National  Biography,"  by  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen. 
The  best  critical  essays  are  by  Walter  Bagehot  in  "  Literary 
Studies,"  vol.  ii. ;  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen,  in  "  Hours  in  a 
Library,"  vol.  iii. ;  Mr.  John  Morley  in  "Miscellanies," 
vol.  ii.,  reprinted  in  Brewster's  "  Studies  in  Structure  and 
Style"  (Macmillan) ;  and  J.  C.  Morrison  in  his  "Life." 
See  also  W.  E.  Gladstone's  "Gleanings  of  Past  Years." 
Miuto's  ''  Manual  of  English  Prose  Literature  "  contains 
a  study  of  Macaulay's  style  with  reference  to  technical 
rhetoric. 

2.  Johnson.  The  standard  edition  of  Johnson's  Works 
is  the  Oxford  Classic  Edition,  11  vols.  "Kasselas"  has 
been  reprinted  in  many  editions;  among  the  best  are 
those  of  Prof.  F.  N.  Scott  (Leach,  She  well,  and  Sanborn) 
and  Prof.  0.  F.  Emerson  (Henry  Holt  and  Co.).  The 
Rambler  and  the  Idler  are  separately  printed  in  the  series 
of  "  British  Essayists,"  or  may  be  consulted  in  G.  B.  Hill's 
"  Select  Essays  of  Samuel  Johnson  "  (Macmillan).  The 
"  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes"  is  in  Syle's  "From  Milton 
to  Tennyson;"  both  it  and  "London,"  are  in  Hales's 
"Longer  English  Poems."  The  "  Lives  of  the  Poets" 
may  be  had  in  the  ten  cent  National  Library  (Cassell 
Publishing  Co. ),  or  in  the  Bohn  Library,  3  vols.  A  selec- 
tion of  the  "Six  Chief  Lives"  (Milton,  Dryden,  Swift, 
Addison,  Pope,  and  Gray)  has  been  edited  by  Matthew 
Arnold  (Macmillan;  Holt).  The  best  edition  of  Boswell's 
"  Life  of  Johnson  "  is  that  edited  by  Mr.  G.  Birkbeck 
Hill  (6  vols.  Macmillan;  Harper),  a  work  that  contains 
a  wealth  of  supplementary  material,  and,  with  its  admirable 
index,  is  one  of  the  best  reference  books  on  eighteenth  cen- 


xlii     SUG OESTIONS  FOR  TEA  CHERS  AND  STUDEX  7  -S 

tury  life  and  literature.  Other  editions  in  order  of  im- 
portance are  Napier's,  Mr.  Henry  Morley's  (Routledge), 
and  Croker's  (Bohn).  All  of  these  contain  many  interest- 
ing pictures.  A  condensed  "Boswell,"  "relieved  from 
passages  of  obsolete  interest,"  is  published  by  Henry  Holt 
and  Co.  Mrs.  Piozzi's  "  Anecdotes  of  Doctor  Johnson," 
first  published  in  1786,  may  be  had  in  the  cheap  National 
Series  (Cassell) ;  but  everything  of  importance  in  the  "  An- 
ecdotes "  is  included  in  the  notes  to  Hill's  "Boswell." 
The  same  remark  is  true  of  Sir  John  Hawkins's  ' '  Life  of 
Johnson,"  published  in  1787.  The  Correspondence  of 
Johnson  and  Mrs.  Thrale  is  printed,  in  part,  in  Scoone's 
"  Four  Centuries  of  English  Letters." 

Of  modern  critical  biographies  of  Johnson  the  best  is 
by  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen  in  the  English  Men  of  Letters  Series. 
This  keen  critic  is  also  the  author  of  the  sketch  in  the 
"  Dictionary  of  National  Biography."  Lieutenant-Colo- 
nel Grant's  "Johnson,"  in  the  Great  Writers  Series, 
contains  a  bibliography  to  the  year  1887.  Among  critical 
studies  should  be  mentioned  Lander's  "Imaginary  Con- 
versations between  Samuel  Johnson  and  John  Home 
Tooke;  "  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen's  "  Dr.  Johnson's  Writings  " 
in  "Hours  in  a  Library,"  vol.  ii. ;  Carlyle's  "  Essay  on  Bos- 
well's  Life  of  Johnson,"  which  maybe  regarded  as  a  reply 
to  Macaulay's  essay  ou  the  same  subject;  Mr.  A.  Bin-ell's 
"Dr.  Johnson"  in  "Obiter  Dicta,"  Second  Series;  Mr. 
G.  Birkbeck  Hill's  "  Dr.  Johnson,  his  Friends,  and  his 
Critics;"  and  chapters  in  Taine's  "History  of  English 
Literature,"  Minto's  "Manual  of  English  Prose  Litera- 
ture," and  Gosse's  "  History  of  Eighteenth  Century  Liter- 
ature." For  the  life  of  Boswell,  apart  from  Johnson,  see 
"  Boswelliana:  the  Commonplace  Book  of  James  Boswell  " 
(London:  1874),  and  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen's  "Boswell"  in 
the  "Dictionary  of  National  Biography." 

3.  Eighteenth  Century  History  and  Literature.     For 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  TEACHERS  AND  STUDENTS   xliii 

political  history  Gardiner's  "Student's  History  of  Eng- 
land "  (Longmans)  is  probably  the  most  convenient  book 
for  general  use.  Chapter  iii.  of  Macaulay's  "History" 
should  be  within  reach;  and  Green's  "Short  History  of 
the  English  People"  is  always  valuable.  Macaulay's 
Essays  on  "Horace  Walpole,"  the  "Earl  of  Chatham," 
"Madame-  D'Arblay,"  "Addisou,"  and  "Oliver  Gold- 
smith," all  treat  of  this  period.  Among  special  histories 
should  be  mentioned  W.  E.  H.  Lecky's  "  History  of  Eng- 
land in  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  especially  chapters  iv., 
ix.,  and  xxiii. ;  Edmund  Gosse's  "  History  of  Eighteenth 
Century  Literature  "  (the  best  sketch  of  the  literature  of 
the  period);  and  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen's  "  History  of  Eng- 
lish Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century."  Additional 
illustrations  of  the  life  of  this  period  will  be  found  in  the 
Tatler  and  the  Spectator  ;  Madame  D'Arblay's  "  Diary  and 
Letters  "  and  "  Early  Journals;  "  Horace  Walpole's  "  Let- 
ters; "  Nichol's  "  Literary  Anecdotes  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century;"  and  Thackeray's  "Lectures  on  the  Four 
Georges." 

4.  London.  Maps  of  London  may  be  had  in  all  sizes 
and  styles  from  Rand,  McNally,  and  Co.  Baedeker's 
"Handbook  for  London,"  with  its  excellent  maps  and 
full  index,  is  useful.  For  information  about  London  of 
the  eighteenth  century  see  Wheatley 's  "  London,  Past  and 
Present,"  3  vols. ;  Button's  "Literary  Landmarks  of 
London;  "  Lemon's  "  Up  and  Down  the  London  Streets;  " 
Hare's  "Walks  in  London;"  and  Mr.  Walter  Besant's 
"London"  (Harpers;  published  originally  in  Harper'' s 
Magazine,  June,  1892). 


EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS 

THE  following  questions  may  be  of  some  service  to 
teachers  and  students  by  way  of  indicating  possible 
methods  of  examination. 

I/.  Show,  by  analysis,  the  grammatical  structure  of 
the  last  sentence  in  paragraph  41  (page  36).  Parse 
which  (36  9),  hammer  (36  12). 

2rsQpmment  in  detail  on  the  structure  of  the  sentences 
in  paragraph  32  (page  23).  What  can  you  say  of  the 
length  of  the  sentences  and  their  arrangement  in  the 
paragraph  ?  By  party  (23  20)  does  Macau  lay  mean  one 
or  more  persons  ? 

3.  Explain  the   meaning  (and,   if  important  for  that 
purpose,  give   the-  derivation)   of  the  following  words  : 
desultory  (3  18),  ceruse  (6  31),  novice  (8  25),  ordinaries 
(9  21),  alamode  (9  21),  sycophancy  (9  28),  rabbis  (13  23), 
maundered  (34  8),  poetasters  (39  3),  mitigated  (43  20). 

4.  Explain,  as  fully  as  possible,  the  following  refer- 
ences and  allusions  :  such  an  author  as  Thomson  (8  17)  ; 
"the  Senate  of  Lilliput"  (10  17)  ;  the  Capulets  against 
the  Montagues  (10  29,  30)  ;  Grub  Street  (14  26)  ;  Drury 
Lane  TJieatre  (16  35).      This  species  of  composition  had 
been  brought  into  fashion  by  the  success  of  the  Taller, 
and  by  the  still  more  brilliant  success  of  the  Spectator 
(18  5-7)  ;  witty  as  Lady  Mary  (20  9,  10)  ;  Johnson  has 
frequently   blamed   Shakspeare  for    neglecting   the  pro- 
prieties of  time  and  place  (23  27-29)  ;  Cock  Lane  Ghost 
(26  31)  ;  Macpherson,  whose,  "  Fingal "  had  been  proved 
to  be  an  impudent  forgery  (36  4,  5). 


EXAMINATION  QUESTIONS  xlv 

5.  Write  briefly  of   Johnson's  Dictionary  and    "  Ras- 
selas."     To  what  does  Johnson  owe  his  great  reputation  ? 
Why  ?     Write  briefly  of  Johnson's  friends.     Explain  the 
difference  between  the  political  opinions  of  Johnson  and 
Burke,  and   attempt   to   account   for   it.     Mention   the 
chief  characteristics  of  Johnson's  style.     Comment  on 
Macaulayrs  statement  (21  30-32)  that  English,  as  John- 
son wrote  it,  was  scarcely  a  Teutonic  language. 

6.  Give  a  list  of  the  famous  English  authors  contem- 
porary with  Johnson,  and  a  list  of  such  of  their  works  as 
you  have  read  in  whole  or  in  part.     On  what  books  have 
you    chiefly   depended   for   your   knowledge   of   English 
literature  in  the  eighteenth  century  ?     Contrast  briefly 
"The   Vicar    of    AVakefield "  and    "  Rasselas."     What 
poet  of  Johnson's  time  is  most  his  opposite  in  character 
and  genius  ?     Why  ?     What  other  famous  novels  besides 
"  Rasselas  "  (excluding  "  The  Vicar  of  Wakefield  ")  were 
written  in  the  "Johnson  age  "  and  how  do  they  compare 
with  "  Rasselas  "  in  method  and  interest  ?\ 

7.  What  traits   of    Macaulay's    character    made   him 
especially  well   fitted   to   appreciate   Johnson's   genius  ? 
How,  in  your  opinion,  does  the  "  Life  of  Johnson  "  com- 
pare in  interest  with  other  writings  of  Macaulay  ?     Has 
it,  in  your  opinion,  any  conspicuous  limitations  or  de- 
fects ? 

8.  Mention  any  parts  of  the  "Life  "  that  have  specially 
interested  you  or  have  proved  particularly  suggestiveA 


xlvi 


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(V 


SAMUEL    JOHNSON 

(DECEMBER,    1856) 

1.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON,  one  of  the  most  eminent  English 
writers  of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  the  son  of  Michael 
Johnson,  who  was,  at  the  beginning  of  that  century,  a 
magistrate  of  Lichfield,  and  a  bookseller  of  great  note  in 
the  midland  counties.  Michael's  abilities  and  attainments  5 
seem  to  have  been  considerable.  He  was  so  well  acquainted 
with  the  contents  of  the  volumes  which  he  exposed  to 
sale,  that  the  country  rectors  of  Staffordshire  and  Worces- 
tershire thought  him  an  oracle  on  points  of  learning.  Be- 
tween him  and  the  clergy,  indeed,  there  was  a  strong  reli-  10 
gious  and  political  sympathy.  He  was  a  zealous  churchman, 
though  he  had  qualified  himself  for  municipal  office 
by  taking  the  oaths  to  the  sovereigns  in  possession,  was  to 

the  last  a  Jacobite  in  heart.     At  his  house,  a  house  which 
'^.       .          .  --  . 

"  is  still  pointed  out  to  every  traveller  who  visits  Lichfield,  15 

Samuel  was  born  on  the  18th  of  September,  1709.  In  the 
child,  the  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  peculiarities 
which  afterwards  distinguished  the  man  were  plainly  dis- 
cernible; great  muscular  strength  accompanied  by  much 
awkwardness  and  many  infirmities;  great  quickness  of  20 
parts,  with  a  morbid  propensity  to  sloth  and  procrastina- 
tion  ;  a  kind  and  generous  heart,  with  a  gloomy  and  irri- 
table temper.  He  had  inherited  from  his  ancestors  a 
scrofulous  taint,  which  it  was  beyond  the  power  of  medi- 
cine to  remove.  His  parents  were  weak  enough  to  believe  25 
that  the  royal  touch  was  a  specific  for  this  malady.  In  his 
third  year  he  was  taken  up  to  London,  inspected  by  the 

1 


2  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

court  surgeon,  prayed  over  by  the  court  chaplains,  and 
stroked  and  presented  with  a  piece  of  gold  by  Queen 
Anne.  One  of  his  earliest  recollections  was  that  of  a 
stately  lady  in  a  diamond  stomacher  and  a  long  black  hood. 
spier  hand  was  applied  in  vain.  The  boy's  features,  which 
were  originally  noble  and  not  irregular,  were  distorted  by 
his  malady.  His  cheeks  were  deeply  scarred.  He  lost  for 
a  time  the  sight  of  one  eye;  and  he  saw  but  very  imper- 
fectly with  the  other.  But  the  force  of  his  mind  overcame 

10  every  impediment.  Indolent  as  he  was,  he  acquired 
knowledge  with  such  ease  and  rapidity  that  at  every  school 
to  which  he  was  sent  he  was  soon  the  best  scholar.  From 
sixteen  to  eighteen  he  resided  at  home,  and  was  left  to  his 
own  devices.  He  learned  much  at  this  time,  though  his 

15  studies  were  without  guidance  and  without  plan.  He  ran- 
sacked his  father's  shelves,  dipped  into  a  multitude  of 
books,  read  what  was  interesting,  and  passed  over  what  was 
dull.  An  ordinary  lad  would  have  acquired  little  or  no 
useful  knowledge  in  such  a  way:  but  much  that  was  dull 

20  to  ordinary  lads  was  interesting  to  Samuel.  He  read  little 
Greek :  for  his  proficiency  in  that  language  was  not  such 
that  he  could  take  much  pleasure  in  the  masters  of  Attic 
poetry  and  eloquence.  But  he  had  left  school  a  good  Latin- 
ist;  and  he  soon  acquired,  in  the  large  and  miscellaneous 

25  library  of  which  he  now  had  the  command,  an  extensive 
knowledge  of  Latin  literature.  That  Augustan  delicacy 
of  taste  which  is  the  boast  of  the  great  public  schools  of 
England  he  never  possessed.  But  he  was  early  familiar 
with  some  classical  writers  who  were  quite  unknown  to 

30  the  best  scholars  in  the  sixth  form  at  Eton.  He  was  pecu- 
liarly attracted  by  the  works  of  the  great  restorers  of  learn- 
ing. Once,  while  searching  for  some  apples,  he  found  a 
huge  folio  volume  of  Petrarch's  works.  The  name  ex- 
cited his  curiosity;  and  he  eagerly  devoured  hundreds  of 

85  pages.     Indeed,  the  diction  and  versification  of  his  own 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  3 

Latin  compositions  show  that  he  had  paid  at  least  as  much 
attention  to  modern  copies  from  the  antique  as  to  the  ori- 
ginal models. 

2.  While  he  was  thus  irregularly  educating  himself,  his 
family  was  sinking  into  hopeless  poverty.      Old  Michael    5 
Johnson  was  much  better  qualified  to  pore  upon  books, 
and  to  talk  about  them,  than  to  trade  in  them.     His  busi- 
ness declined;  his  debts  increased;  it  was  with  difficulty 
that  the  daily  expenses  of  his  household  were  defrayed.     It 
was  out  of  his  power  to  support  his  son  at  either  univer-  10 
sity;  but  a  wealthy  neighbour  offered  assistance;  and,  in 
reliance  on  promises  which  proved  to  be  of  very  little  value, 
Samuel  was  entered  at  Pembroke  College,  Oxford.     When 
the  young  scholar  presented  himself  to  the  rulers  of  that 
society,  they  were  amazed  not  more  by  his  ungainly  figure  15 
and  eccentric  manners  than  by  the  quantity  of  extensive 
and  curious  information  which  he  had  picked  up  during 

'  inaiiy  months  of  desiiltory  but  not  unprofitable  study.     On 
the  first  day  of  his  residence  he  surprised  his  teachers  by 
quoting  Macrobius;  and  one  of  the  most  learned  among  20 
them  declared  that  he  had  never  known  a  freshman  of 
equal  attainments. 

3.  At  Oxford,  Johnson  resided  during  about  three  years. 
He  was  poor,  even  to  raggedness;  and  his  appearance  ex- 
cited a  mirth  and  a  pity  which  were  equally  intolerable  to  25 
his  haughty  spirit.      He  was  driven  from  the  quadrangle 

of  Christ  Church  by  the  sneering  looks  which  the  mem-  • 
bers  of  that  aristocratical  society  cast  at  the  holes  in  his 
shoes.     Some  charitable  person  placed  a  new  pair  at  his 
door;  but  he  spurned  them  away  in  a  fury.     Distress  made  30 
him,  not  servile,  but  reckless  and  ungovernable.     No  opu- 
lent gentleman  commoner,  panting  for  one-and-twenty, 
could  have  treated  the  academical  authorities  with  more 
gross  disrespect.      The  needy  scholar  was  generally  to  be 
seen  under  the  gate  of  Pembroke,  a  gate  now  adorned  35 


4  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

with  his  effigy,  haranguing  a  circle  of  lads,  over  whom,  in 
spite  of  his  tattered  gown  and  dirty  linen,  his  wit  and  au- 
dacity gave  him  an  undisputed  ascendency.  In  every 
mutiny  against  the  discipline  of  the  college  he  was  the 
5  ringleader.  Much  was  pardoned,  however,  to  a  youth  so 
highly  distinguished  by  abilities  and  acquirements.  He 
had  early  made  himself  known  by  turning  Pope's  "Mes- 
siah "  into  Latin  verse.  The  style  and  rhythm,  indeed, 
were  not  exactly  Yirgilian ;  but  the  translation  found  many 
JO  admirers,  and  was  read  with  pleasure  by  Pope  himself. 

4.  The  time  drew  near  at  which  Johnson  would,  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  things,  have  become  a  Bachelor  of  Arts : 
but  he  was  at  the  end  of  his  resources.     Those  promises  of 
support  on  which  he  had  relied  had  not  been  kept.      His 

15  family  could  do  nothing  for  him.  His  debts  to  Oxford 
tradesmen  were  small  indeed,  yet  larger  than  he  could 
pay.  In  the  autumn  of  1731,  he  was  under  the  necessity 
of  quitting  the  university  without  a  degree.  In  the  fol- 
lowing winter  his  father  died.  The  old  man  left  but  a 

20  pittance ;  and  of  that  pittance  almost  the  whole  was  appro- 
priated to  the  support  of  his  widow.  The  property  to 
which  Samuel  succeeded  amounted  to  no  more  than  twenty 
pounds. 

5.  His  life,  during  the  thirty  years  which  followed,  was 
25  one  hard  struggle   with  poverty.      The  misery  of   that 

struggle  needed  no  aggravation,  but  was  aggravated  by 
the  sufferings  of  an  unsound  body  and  an  unsound  mind. 
Before  the  young  man  left  the  university,  his  hereditary 
malady  had  broken  forth  in  a  singularly  cruel  form.  He 

30  had  become  an  incurable  hypochondriac.  He  said  long 
after  that  he  had  been  mad  allliis  life,  or  at  least  not  per- 
fectly sane;  and,  in  truth,  eccentricities  less  strange  than 
his  have  often  been  thought  grounds  sufficient  for  absolving 
felons,  and  for  setting  aside  wills.  His  grimaces,  his  ges- 

35  tures,  his  inutteriugs,  sometimes  diverted  and  sometimes 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  5 

terrified  people  who  did  not  know  him.  At  a  dinner  table 
he  would,  in  a  fit  of  absence,  stoop  down  and  twitch  off  a 
lady's  shoe.  He  would  amaze  a  drawing-room  by  suddenly 
ejaculating  a  clause  of  the  Lord's  Prayer.  He  would  con- 
ceive an  unintelligible  aversion  to  a  particular  alley,  and  5 
perform  a  great  circuit  rather  than  see  the  hateful  place. 
He  would  set  his  heart  on  touching  every  post  in  the  streets 
through  which  he  walked.  If  by  any  chance  he  missed  a 
post,  he  would  go  back  a  hundred  yards  and  repair  the 
omission.  Under  the  influence  of  his  disease,  his  senses  10 
became  morbidly  torpid,  and  his  imagination  morbidly 
active.  At  one  time  he  would  stand  poring  on  the  town 
clock  without  being  able  to  tell  the  hour.  At  another,  he 
would  distinctly  hear  his  mother,  who  was  many  miles  off, 
calling  him  by  his  name.  But  this  was  not  the  worst.  A  15 
deep  melancholy  took  possession  of  him,  and  gave  a  dark 
tinge  to  all  his  views  of  human  nature  and  of  human 
destiny.  Such  wretchedness  as  he  endured  has  driven 
many  men  to  shoot  themselves  or  drown  themselves.  But 
he  was  under  no  temptation  to  commit  suicide.  He  was  20 
sick  of  life ;  but  he  was  afraid  of  death ;  and  he  shuddered 
at  every  sight  or  sound  which  reminded  him  of  the  inevi- 
table hour.  In  religion  he  found  but  little  comfort  dur- 
ing his  long  and  frequent  fits  of  dejection ;  for  his  religion 
partook  of  his  own  character.  The  light  from  heaven  25 
shone  on  him  indeed,  but  not  in  a  direct  line,  or  with  its 
own  pure  splendour.  The  rays  had  to  struggle  through 
a  disturbing  medium ;  they  reached  him  refracted,  dulled 
and  discoloured  by  the  thick  gloom  which  had  settled  on  his 
soul;  and,  though  they  might  be  sufficiently  clear  to  guide  30 
him,  were  too  dim  to  cheer  him.\ 

6.  With  such  infirmities  of  ""body  and  mind,  this  cele- 
brated man  was  left,  at  two-and-twenty,  to  fight  his  way 
through  the  world.  He  remained  during  about  five  years 
in  the  midland  counties.  At  Lichfield,  his  birthplace  and  35 


6 

his  early  home,  he  had  inherited  some  friends  and  acquired 
others.  He  was  kindly  noticed  by  Henry  Hervey,  a  gay 
officer  of  noble  family,  who  happened  to  be  quartered 
there.  Gilbert  Walmesley,  registrar  of  the  ecclesiastical 
5  court  of  the  diocese,  a  man  of  distinguished  parts,  learn- 
ing, and  -knowledge  of  the  world,  did  himself  honour  by 
patronising  the  young  adventurer,  whose  repulsive  person, 
unpolished  manners,  and  squalid  garb  moved  many  of  the 
petty  aristocracy  of  the  neighbourhood  to  laughter  or  to  dis- 

10  gust.     At  Lichfield,  however,  Johnson  could  find  no  way 
of  earning  a  livelihood.     He  became  usher_  of  a  grammar^* 
school  in  Leicestershire ;  he  resided  as  a  humble  companion 
in  the  house  of  a  country  gentleman;  but  a  life  of  de- 
pendence was  insupportable  to   his  haughty  spirit.     He 

15  repaired  to  Birmingham,  and  there  earned  a  few  guineas 
by  literary  drudgery.  In  that  town  he  printed  a  transla- 
tion, little  noticed  at  the  time,  and  long  forgotten,  of  a 
Latin  book  about  Abyssinia.  He  then  put  forth  propo- 
sals for  publishing  by  subscription  the  poems  of  Politian, 

20  with  notes  containing  a  history  of  modern  Latin  verse : 
but  subscriptions  did  not  come  in;  and  the  volume  never 
appeared. 

7.  While  leading  this  vagrant  and  miserable  life,  John- 
son fell  in  love.     The  object  of  his  passion  was  Mrs.  Eliza- 

25  beth  Porter,  a  widow  who  had  children  as  old  as  himself. 
To  ordinary  spectators,  the  lady  appeared  to  be  a  short, 
fat,  coarse  woman,  painted  half  an  inch  thick,  dressed  in 
gaudy  colours,  and  fond  of  exhibiting  provincial  airs  and 
graces  which  were  not  exactly  those  of  the  Queen&heiTys 

30  and  Lepeig,.  To  Johnson,  however,  whose  passions  were 
strong,  whose  eyesight  was  too  weak  to  distinguish  ceruse 
from  natural  bloom,  and  who  had  seldom  or  never  been  in 
the  same  room  with  a  woman  of  real  fashion,  his  Titty,  as 
he  called  her,  was  the  most  beautiful,  graceful,  and  accom- 

35  plished  of  her  sex.     That  his  admiration  was  unfeigned 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  7 

cannot  be  doubted ;  for  she  was  as  poor  as  himself.  She 
accepted,  with  a  readiness  which  did  her  little  honour,  the 
addresses  of  a  suitor  who  might  have  been  her  son.  The 
marriage,  however,  in  spite  of  occasional  wranglings, 
proved  happier  than  might  have  been  expected.  The  5 
lover  continued  to  be  under  the  illusions  of  the  wedding- 
day  till  the  lady  died  in  her  sixty-fourth  year.  On  her 
monument  he  placed  an  inscription  extolling  the  charms 
of  her  person  and  of  her  manners;  and  when,  long  after 
her  decease,  he  had  occasion  to  mention  her,  he  exclaimed,  10 
with  a  tenderness  half  ludicrous,  half  pathetic,  "  Pretty 
creature ! ' ' 

/  8.  His  marriage  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  exert  him- 
self more  strenuously  than  he  had  hitherto  done.  He  took 
a  house  in  the  neighbourhood  of  his  native  town,  and  ad-  15 
vertised  for  pupils.  But  eighteen  months  passed  away; 
and  only  three  pupils  came  to  his  academy.  Indeed,  his 
appearance  was  so  strange,  and  his  temper  so  violent,  that 
his  schoolroom  must  have  resembled  an  ogre's  den.  Nor 
was  the  tawdry  painted  grandmother  whom  he  called  his  20 
Titty  well  qualified  to  make  provision  for  the  comfort  of 
young  gentlemen.  David  Garrick,  who  was  one  of  the 
pupils,  used,  many  years  later,  to  throw  the  best  company 
of  London  into  convulsions  of  laughter  by  mimicking  the 
endearments  of  this  extraordinary  pair.  25 

9.  At  length  Johnson,  in  the  twenty-eighth  year  of  his 
age,  determined  to  seek  his  fortune  in  the  capital  as  a 
literary  adventurer.      He  set  out  with  a  few  guineas,  three 
acts  of  the  tragedy  of  "  Irene  "  in  manuscript,  and  two  or 
three  letters  of  introduction  from  his  friend  Walmesley.      30 

10.  Never,  since  literature  became  a  calling  in  England, 
had  it  been  a  less  gainful  calling  than  at  the  time  when 
Johnson  took  up  his  residence  in  London.     In  the  preced- 
ing generation  a  writer  of  eminent  merit  was  sure  to  be 
munificently  rewarded  by  the  government.     The  least  that  35 


8  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

he  could  expect  was  a  pension  or  a  sinecure  place ;  and,  if 
he  showed  any  aptitude  for  politics,  he  might  hope  to  be  a 
member  of  parliament,  a  lord  of  the  treasury,  an  ambas- 
sador, a  secretary  of  state.  It  would  be  easy,  on  the  other 
5  hand,  to  name  several  writers  of  the  nineteenth  century 
of  whom  the  least  successful  has  received  forty  thousand 
pounds  from  the  booksellers.  But  Johnson  entered  on  his 
vocation  in  the  most  dreary  part  of  the  dreary  interval 
which  separated  two  ages  of  prosperity.  Literature  had 

10  ceased  to  flourish  under  the  patronage  of  the  great,  and 
had  not  begun  to  flourish  under  the  patronage  of  the  pub- 
lic. One  man  of  letters,  indeed,  Pope,  had  acquired  by  his 
pen  what  was  then  considered  as  a  handsome  fortune,  and 
lived  on  a  footing  of  equality  with  nobles  and  ministers  of 

15  state.  But  this  was  a  solitary  exception.  Even  an  author 
whose  reputation  was  established,  and  whose  works  were 
popular,  such  an  author  as  Thomson,  whose  "Seasons" 
were  in  every  library,  such  an  author  as  Fielding,  whose 
"  Pasquin  "  had  had  a  greater  run  than  any  drama  since 

20  "  The  Beggar's  Opera,"  was  sometimes  glad  to  obtain,  by 
pawning  his  best  coat,  the  means  of  dining  on  tripe  at  a 
cookshop  underground,  where  he  could  wipe  his  hands, 
after  his  greasy  meal,  on  the  back  of  a  Newfoundland  dog. 
It  is  easy,  therefore,  to  imagine  what  humiliations  and  pri- 

25  vations  must  have  awaited  the  novice  who  had  still  to  earn 
a  name.  One  of  the  publishers  to  whom  Johnson  ap- 
plied for  employment  measured  with  a  scornful  eye  that 
athletic  though  uncouth  frame,  and  exclaimed,  "  You  had 
better  get  a  porter's  knot,  and  carry  trunks."  Nor  was 

:i(>  the  advice  bad;  for  a  porter  was  likely  to  be  as  plentifully 
fed,  and  as  comfortably  lodged,  as  a  poet. 

11.  Some  time  appears  to  have  elapsed  before  Johnson  was 
able  to  form  any  literary  connection  from  which  he  could 
expect  more  than  bread  for  the  day  which  was  passing  over 

35  him.     He  never  forgot  the  generosity  witli  which  Hervey, 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  9 

who  was  now  residing  in  London,  relieved  his  wants  during 
this  time  of  trial.  "  Harry  Hervey,"  said  the  old  philoso- 
pher many  years  later,  ''was  a  vicious  man;  but  he  was 
very  kind  to  me.  If  you  call  a  dog  Hervey  I  shall  love 
him."  At  Hervey's  table  Johnson  sometimes  enjoyed  5 
feasts  which  were  made  more  agreeable  by  contrast.  But 
in  general  he  dined,  and  thought  that  he  dined  well,  on 
sixpenny  worth  of  meat,  and  a  pennyworth  of  bread,  at  an 
alehouse  near  Drury  Lane. 

12.  The  effect  of  the  privations  and  sufferings  which  10 
he  endured  at  this  time  was  discernible  to  the  last  in  his 
temper  and  his  deportment.  His  manners  had  never  been 
courtly.  They  now  became  almost  savage.  Being  fre- 
quently under  the  necessity  of  wearing  shabby  coats  and 
dirty  shirts,  he  became  a  confirmed  sloven.  Being  often  15 
very  hungry  when  he  sat  down  to  his  meals,  he  contracted 
a  habit  of  eating  with  ravenous  greediness.  Even  to  the 
end  of  his  life,  and  even  at  the  tables  of  the  great,  the 
sight  of  food  affected  him  as  it  affects  wild  beasts  and 
birds  of  prey.  His  taste  in  cookery,  formed  in  subter-  20 
ranean  ordinaries  and  alamode  beefshops,  was  far  from 
delicate.  Whenever  he  was  so  fortunate  as  to  have  near 
him  a  hare  that  had  been  kept  too  long,  or  a  meat  pie 
'  ~  made  with  rancid  butter,  he  gorged  himself  with  such 
violence  that  his  veins  swelled,  and  the  moisture  broke  25 
out  on  his  forehead.  The  affronts  which  his  poverty  em- 
boldened stupid  and  low-minded  men  to  offer  to  him 
would  have  broken  a  mean  spirit  into  sycophancy,  but 
made  him  rude  even  to  ferocity.  Unhappily  the  insolence 
which,  while  it  was  defensive,  was  pardonable,  and  in  30 
some  sense  respectable,  accompanied  him  into  societies 
.  where  he  was  treated  with  courtesy  and  kindness.  He 
was  repeatedly  provoked  into  striking  those  who  had  taken 
liberties  with  him.  All  the  sufferers,  however,  were  wise 
enough  to  abstain  from  talking  about  their  beatings,  ex-  35 


10  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

cept  Osborne,  the  most  rapacious  and  brutal  of  booksellers, 
who  proclaimed  everywhere  that  he  had  been  knocked 
down  by  the  huge  fellow  whom  he  had  hired  to  puff  the 
Harleian  Library. 

5  13.  About  a  year  after  Johnson  had  begun  to  reside  in 
London,  he  was  fortunate  enough  to  obtain  regular  em- 
ployment from  Cave,  an  enterprising  and  intelligent  book- 
seller, who  was  proprietor  and  editor  of  the  Gentleman'* 
Magazine.  That  journal,  just  entering  on  the  ninth  year 

10  of  its  long  existence,  was  the  only  periodical  xwork  in  the 
kingdom  which  then  had  what  would  now  be  called  a 
large  circulation.  It  was,  indeed,  the  chief  source  of  par- 
liamentary intelligence.  It  was  not  then  safe,  even  during 
a  recess,  to  publish  an  account  of  the  proceedings  of  either 

15  House  without  some  disguise.  Cave,  however,  ventured 
to  entertain  his  readers  with  what  he  called  "  Keports  of 
the  Debates  of  the  Senate  of  Lilliput."  France  was  Ble- 
fuscu;  London  was  Mildendo:  pounds  were  sprugs:  the 
Duke  of  Newcastle  was  the  Nardac  secretary  of  State: 

20  Lord  Hardwicke  was  the  Hurgo  Hickrad:  and  William 
Pulteney  was  Wingul  Pulnub.  To  write  the  speeches  was, 
during  several  years,  the  business  of  Johnson.  He  was 
generally  furnished  with  notes,  meagre  indeed,  and  inac- 
curate, of  what  had  been  said;  but  sometimes  he  had  to 

25  find  arguments  and  eloquence  both  for  the  ministry  and  for 
the  opposition.  He  was  himself  a  Tory,  not  from  rational 
conviction — for  his  serious  opinion  was  that  one  form  of 
government  was  just  as  good  or  as  bad  as  another — but 
from  mere  passion,  such  as  inflamed  the  Capulets  against 

30  the  Montagues,  or  the  Blues  of  the  Eoman  circus  against 
the  Greens.  In  his  infancy  he  had  heard  so  much  talk 
about  the  villanies  of  the  Whigs,  and  the  dangers  of  the 
Church,  that  he  had  become  a  furious  partisan  when  he 
could  scarcely  speak.  Before  he  was  three  he  had  insisted 

35  on  being  taken  to  hear  Sacheverell  preach  at  Lichfield 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  H 

Cathedral,  and  had  listened  to  the  sermon  with  as  much 
respect,  and  probably  with  as  much  intelligence,  as  any 
Staffordshire  squire  in  the  congregation.  The  work  which 
had  been  begun  in  the  nursery  had  been  completed  by  the 
university.  Oxford,  when  Johnson  resided  there,  was  the  5 
most  Jacobitical  place  in  England;  and  Pembroke  was  one 
of  the  most  Jacobitical  colleges  in  Oxford.  The  preju- 
dices which  he  brought  up  to  London  were  scarcely  less 
absurd  than  those  of  his  own  Tom  Tempest.  Charles 
II.  and  James  II.  were  two  of  the  best  kings  that  ever  10 
reigned.  Laud,  a  poor  creature  who  never  did,  said,  or 
wrote  anything  indicating  more  than  the  ordinary  capacity 
of  an  old  woman,  was  a  prodigy  of  parts  and  learning  over 
whose  tomb  Art  and  Genius  still  continued  to  weep. 
Hampden  deserved  no  more  honourable  name  than  that  of  15 
"the  zealot  of  rebellion.."  Even  the  ship  money,  con- 
demned not  less  decidedly  by  Falkland  and  Clarendon 
than  by  the  bitterest  Roundheads,  Johnson  would  not  pro- 
nounce to  have  been  an  unconstitutional  impost.  Under 
a  government, -the  mildest  that  had  ever  been  known  in  20 
the  world  —  under  a  government,  which  allowed  to  the 
people  an  unprecedented  liberty  of  speech  and  action — he 
fancied  that  he  was  a  slave ;  he  assailed  the  ministry  .with 
obloquy  which  refuted  itself,  and  regretted  the  lost  free- 
dom and  happiness  of  those  golden  days  in  which  a  writer  25 
who  had  taken  but  one-tenth  part  of  the  license  allowed 
to  him  would  have  been  pilloried,  mangled  with  the  shears, 
whipped  at  the  cart's  tail,  and  flung  into  a  noisome  dun- 
geon to  die.  He  hated  dissenters  and  stockjobbers,  the 
excise  and  the  army,  septennial  parliaments,  and  continen-  30 
tal  connections.  He  long  had  an  aversion  to  the  Scotch, 
an  aversion  of  which  he  could  not  remember  the  com- 
mencement, but  which,  he  owned,  had  probably  originated 
in  his  abhorrence  of  the  conduct  of  the  nation  during  the 
Great  Rebellion.  It  is  easy  to  guess  in  what  manner  debates  35 


12 

on  great  party  questions  were  likely  to  be  reported  by  a  man 
whose  judgment  was  so  much  disordered  by  party  spirit. 
A  show  of  fairness  was  indeed  necessary  to  the  prosperity 
of  the  Magazine.  But  Johnson  long  afterwards  owned 
5  that,  though  he  had  saved  appearances,  he  had  taken  care 
that  the  Whig  dogs  should  not  have  the  best  of  it;  and,  in 
fact,  every  passage  which  has  lived,  every  passage  which 
bears  the  marks  of  his  higher  faculties,  is  put  into  the 
mouth  of  some  member  of  the  opposition. 

10  14.  A  few  weeks  after  Johnson  had  entered  on  these 
obscure  labours,  he  published  a  work  which  at  once  placed 
him  high  among  the  writers  of  his  age.  It  is  probable 
that  what  he  had  suffered  during  his  first  year  in  London 
had  often  reminded  him  of  some  parts  of  that  noble  poem 

15  in  which  Juvenal  had  described  the  misery  and  degrada- 
tion of  a  needy  man  of  letters,  lodged  among  the  pigeons' 
nests  in  the  tottering  garrets  which  overhung  the  streets  of 
Eome.  Pope's  admirable  imitations  of  Horace's  "  Satires  " 
and  "  Epistles  "  had  recently  appeared,  were  in  every  hand, 

20_and  were  by  many  readers  thought  superior  to  the  originals. 
What  Pope  had  done  for  Horace,  Johnson  aspired  to  do 
for  Juvenal.  The  enterprise  was  bold  and  yet  judicious. 
For  between  Johnson  and  Juvenal  there  was  much  in  com- 
mon, much  more  certainly  than  between  Pope  and  Horace. 

25  15.  Johnson's  "London"  appeared  without  his  name 
in  May,  1738.  He  received  only  ten  guineas  for  this 
stately  and  vigorous  poem ;  but  the  sale  was  rapid,  and  the 
success  complete.  A  second  edition  was  required  within 
a  week.  Those  small  critics  who  are  always  desirous  to 

30  lower  established  reputations  ran  about  proclaiming  that 
the  anonymous  satirist  was  superior  to  Pope  in  Pope's  own 
peculiar  department  of  literature.  It  ought  to  be  remem- 
bered, to  the  honour  of  Pope,  that  he  joined  heartily  in  the 
applause  with  which  the  appearance  of  a  rival  genius  was 

35  welcomed.      He  made  inquiries  about  the  author  of  "  Lon- 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  13 

don."  Such  a  man,  he  said,  could  not  long  be  concealed. 
The  name  was  soon  discovered;  and  Pope,  with  great 
kindness,  exerted  himself  to  obtain  an  academical  degree 
and  the  mastership  of  a  grammar  school  for  the  poor 
young  poet.  The  attempt  failed;  and  Johnson  remained  5 
a  bookseller's  hack. 

16.  It  does  not  appear  that  these  two  men,  the  most 
eminent  writer  of  the  generation  which  was  going  out, 
and  the  most  eminent  writer  of  the  generation  which  was 
coming  in,  ever  saw  each  other.  They  lived  in  very  10 
different  circles,  one  surrounded  by  dukes  and  earls,  the 
other  by  starving  pamphleteers  and  index  makers.  Among 
Johnson's  associates  at  this  time  may  be  mentioned  Boyse, 
who,  when  his  shirts  were  pledged,  scrawled  Latin  verses 
sitting  up  in  bed  with  his  arms  through  two  holes  in  his  15 
blanket;  who  composed  very  respectable  sacred  poetry 
when  he  was  sober;  and  who  was  at  last  run  over  by  a 
hackney  coach  when  he  was  drunk :  Hoole,  surnamed  the 
metaphysical  tailor,  who,  instead  of  attending  to  his  mea- 
sures, used  to  trace  geometrical  diagrams  on  the  board  20 
where  he  sate  cross-legged;  and  the  penitent  impostor, 
George  Psalmanazar,  who,  after  poring  all  day,  in  a  hum- 
ble lodging,  on  the  folios  of  Jewish  rabbis  and  Christian 
fathers,  indulged  himself  at  night  with  literary  and  theo- 
logical conversation  at  an  alehouse  in  the  city.  But  the  25 
most  remarkable  of  the  persons  with  whom  at  this  time 
Johnson  consorted  was  Richard  Savage,  an  earl's  son,  a 
shoemaker's  apprentice,  who  had  seen  life  in  all  its  forms, 
who  had  feasted  among  blue  ribands  in  Saint  James's 
Square,  and  had  lain  with  fifty  pounds'  weight  of  iron  on  30 
his  legs  in  the  condemned  ward  of  Newgate.  This  man 
had,  after  many  vicissitudes  of  fortune,  sunk  at  last  into 
abject  and  hopeless  poverty.  His  pen  had  failed  him. 
His  patrons  had  been  taken  away  by  death,  or  estranged 
by  the  riotous  profusion  with  which  he  squandered  their  35 


14  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

bounty,  and  the  ungrateful  insolence  with  which  he  re- 
jected their  advice.  He  now  lived  by  begging.  He  dined 
on  venison  and  champagne  whenever  he  had  been  so  fortu- 
nate as  to  borrow  a  guinea.  If  his  questing  had  been 
5  unsuccessful,  he  appeased  the  rage  of  hunger  with  some 
scraps  of  broken  meat,  and  lay  down  to  rest  under  the 
Piazza  of  Co  vent  Garden  in  warm  weather,  and,  in  cold 
weather,  as  near  as  he  could  get  to  the  furnace  of  a  glass 
house.  Yet,  in  his  misery,  he  was  still  an  agreeable  com- 

10  panion.     He  had  an  inexhaustible  store  of  anecdotes  about 

..  that  gay  and  brilliant  world  from  which  he  was  now  an 
outcast.  He  had  observed  the  great  men  of  both  parties 
in  hours  of  careless  relaxation,  had  seen  the  leaders  of 
opposition  without  the  mask  of  patriotism,  and  had  heard 

15  the  prime  minister  roar  with  laughter  and  tell  stories  not 
over  decent.  During  some  months  Savage  lived  in  the 
closest  familiarity  with  Johnson;  and  then  the  friends 
parted,  not  without  tears.  Johnson  remained  in  London 
to  drudge  for  Cave.  Savage  went  to  the  West  of  England, 

20  lived  there  as  he  had  lived  everywhere,  and,  in  1743,  died, 
.penniless  and  heart-broken,  in  Bristol  gaol. 

17.  Soon  after  his  death,  while  the  public  curiosity  was 
excited  about  his  extraordinary  character,  and  his 
not  less  extraordinary  adventures,  a  life  of  him  appeared 

25  widely  different  from  the  catchpenny  lives  of  eminent  men 
which  were  then  a  staple  article  of  manufacture  in  Grub 
Street.  The  style  was  indeed  deficient  in  ease  and  variety ; 
and  the  writer  was  evidently  too  partial  to  the  Latin  ele- 
ment of  our  language.  But  the  little  work,  with  all  its 

30  faults,  was  a  masterpiece.  No  finer  specimen  of  literary 
biography  existed  in  any  language,  living  or  dead ;  and  a 
discerning  critic  might  have  confidently  predicted  that 
the  author  was  destined  to  be  the  founder  of  a  new  school 
of  English  eloquence. 

35      18.  The  life  of  Savage  was  anonymous;  but  it  was  well 


15 

known  in  literary  circles  that  Johnson  was  the  writer. 
During  the  three  years  which  followed,  he  produced  no 
important  work;  but  he  was  not,  and  indeed  could  not  be, 
idle.  The  fame  of  his  abilities  and  learning  continued  to 
grow.  Warburton  pronounced  him  a  man  of  parts  and  5 
genius;  and  the  praise  of  Warburton  was  then  no  light 
thing.  Such  was  Johnson's  reputation  that,  in  1747,  sev- 
eral eminent  booksellers  combined  to  employ  him  in  the 
arduous  work  of  preparing  a  Dictionary  of  the  English 
language,  in  two  folio  volumes.  The  sum  which  they  10 
agreed  to  pay  him  was  only  fifteen  hundred  guineas;  and 
out  of  this  sum  he  had  to  pay  several  poor  men  of  letters 
who  assisted  him  in  the  humbler  parts  of  his  task. 

19.  The  prospectus  of  the  "  Dictionary  "  he  addressed  to 
the  Earl  of  Chesterfield.     Chesterfield  had  long  been  cele-  15 
brated  for  the  politeness  of  his  manners,  the  brilliancy  of 
his  wit,  and  the  delicacy  of  his  taste.     He  was  acknow- 
ledged to  be  the  finest  speaker  in  the  House  of  Lords.    He 
had  recently  governed  Ireland,  at  a  momentous  conjunc- 
ture, with  eminent  firmness,  wisdom,  and  humanity;  and  20 
he  had  since  become  Secretary  of    State.      He   received 
Johnson's  homage  with  the  most  winning  affability,  and 
requited  it  with  a  few  guineas,  bestowed  doubtless  in  a  very 
graceful  manner,  but  was  by  no  means  desirous  to  see  all 
his  carpets  blackened  with  the  London  mud,  and  his  soups  25 
and  wines  thrown  to  right  and  left  over  the  gowns  of  fine 
ladies  and  the  waistcoats  of  fine  gentlemen,  by  an  absent, 
awkward   scholar,  who  gave  strange   starts  and   uttered 
strange  growls,  who  dressed  like  a  scarecrow,  and  ate  like 

a  cormorant.     During  some  time  Johnson  continued  to  30 
call  on  his  patron,  but  after  being  repeatedly  told  by  the 
porter  that  ms~  lordship  was  not  at  home,  took  the  hint, 
and  ceased  to  present  himself  at  the  inhospitable  doew 

20.  Johnson  had  flattered  himself  that  he  should  nave 
completed  his  "Dictionary"  by  the  end  of  1750;  but  it  35 


16  LIFE  OF  SA.MUEL  JOHNSON 

was  not  till  1755  that  he  at  length  gave  his  huge  volumes 
to  the  world.  During  the  seven  years  which  he  passed  in 
the  drudgery  of  penning  definitions  and  marking  quota- 
tions for  transcription,  he  sought  for  relaxation  in  literary 

5  labour  of  a  more  agreeable  kind.  In  1749  he  published 
the  "  Vanity  of  Human ^Wishes,"  an  excellent  imitation 
of  the  Tenth  Satire  of  Juvenal.  It  is  in  truth  not 
easy  to  say  whether  the  palm  belongs  to  the  ancient  or  to 
the  modern  poet.  The  couplets  in  which  the  fall  of  Wol- 

10  sey  is  described,  though  lofty  and  sonorous,  are  feeble 
when  compared  with  the  wonderful  lines  which  bring 
before  us  all  Home  in  tumult  on  the  day  of  the  fall  of 
Sejanus,  the  laurels  on  the  doorposts,  the  white  bull  stalk- 
ing towards  the  Capitol,  the  statues  rolling  down  from 

15  their  pedestals,  the  flatterers  of  the  disgraced  minister 
running  to  see  him  dragged  with  a  hook  through  the 
streets,  and  to  have  a  kick  at  his  carcase  before  it  is  hurled 
into  the  Tiber.  It  must  be  owned,  too,  that  in  the  con- 
cluding passage  the  Christian  moralist  has  not  made  the 

20  most  of  his  advantages,  and  has  fallen  decidedly  short  of 
the  sublimity  of  his  Pagan  model.  On  the  other  hand, 
Juvenal's  Hannibal  must  yield  to  Johnson's  Charles ; 
and  Johnson's  vigorous  and  pathetic  enumeration  of  the 
miseries  of  a  literary  life  must  be  allowed  to  be  superior 

25  to  Juvenal's  lamentation  over  the  fate  of  Demosthenes 
and  Cicero. 

21.  For   the    copyright   of   the   "  Vanity   of   Human 
Wishes"  Johnson  received  only  fifteen  guineas.  V 

22.  A  few  days  after  the  publication  of  this' poem,  his 
30  tragedy,  begun  many  years  before,   was  brought  on   the 

stage.  His  pupil,  David  Garrick,  had,  in  1741,  made  his 
appearance  on  a  humble  stage  in  Goodman's  Fields,  had  at 
once  risen  to  the  first  place  among  actors,  and  was  now, 
after  several  years  of  almost  uninterrupted  success,  nuin- 
35  ager  of  Drury  Lane  Theatre.  The  relation  between  him 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  17 

and  his  old  preceptor  was  of  a  very  singular  kind.  They 
repelled  each  other  strongly,  and  yet  attracted  each  other 
strongly.  Nature  had  made  them  of  very  different  clay; 
and  circumstances  had  fully  brought  out  the  natural  pecu- 
liarities of  both.  Sudden  prosperity  had  turned  Garrick's  5 
head.  Continued  adversity  had  soured  Johnson's  temper. 
Johnson  saw  with  more  envy  than  became  so  great  a  man 
the  villa,  the  plate,  the  china,  the  Brussels  carpet,  which 
the  little*  mimic  had  got  by  repeating,  with  grimaces  and 
gesticulations,  what  wiser  men  had  written;  and  the  ex-  10 
quisitely  sensitive  vanity  of  Garrick  was  galled  by  the 
thought  that,  while  all  the  rest  of  the  world  was  applaud- 
ing him,  he  could  obtain  from  one  morose  cynic,  whose 
opinion  it  was  impossible  to  despise,  scarcely  any  compli- 
ment not  acidulated  with  scorn,  y  Yet  the  two  Lichfield  15 
men  had  so  many  early  recollections  in  common,  and  sym- 
pathised with  each  other  on  so  many  points  on  which  they 
sympathised  with  nobody  else  in  the  vast  population  of 
the  capital,  that,  though  the  master  was  often  provoked  by 
the  monkey-like  impertinence  of  the  pupil,  and  the  pupil  20 
by  the  bearish  rudeness  of  the  master,  they  remained 
friends  till  they  were  parted  by  death.  Garrick  now 
brought  "Irene"  out,  with  alterations  sufficient  to  dis- 
please the  author,  yet  not  sufficient  to  make  the  piece 
pleasing  to  the  audience.  The  public,  however,  listened  25 
with  little  emotion,  but  with  much  civility,  to  five  acts  of 
monotonous  declamation.  After  nine  representations  the 
play  was  withdrawn.  It  is,  indeed,  altogether  unsuited  to 
the  stage,  and,  even  when  perused  in  the  closet,  will  be 
found  hardly  worthy  of  the  author.  He  had  not  the  30 
slightest  notion  of  what  blank  verse  should  be.  A  change 
in  the  last  syllable  of  every  other  line  would  make  the  ver- 
sification of  the  "Vanity  of  Human  Wishes"  closely  re- 
semble the  versification  of  "  Irene."  The  poet,  however, 
cleared,  by  his  benefit  nights,  and  by  the  sale  of  the  copy-  35 


18  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

right  of  his  tragedy,  about  three  hundred  pounds,  then  a 
great  sum  in  his  estimation. 

23.  About  a  year  after  the  representation  of  "Irene," 
he  began  to  publish  a  series  of  short  essays  on  morals, 
5  manners,  and  literature.  This  species  of  composition  had 
been  brought  into  fashion  by  the  success  of  the  Tatler, 
and  by  the  still  more  brilliant  success  of  the  Spectator. 
A  crowd  of  small  writers  had  vainly  attempted  to  rival 
Addison.  The  Lay  Monastery,  the  Censor,  the  Free- 

10  thinker,  the  Plain  Dealer,  the  Champion,  and  other  works 
of  the  same  kind,  had  had  their  short  day.     None  of  then 
had  obtained  a  permanent  place  in  our  literature;  and  they 
are  now  to  be  found  only  in  the  libraries  of  the  curious. 
At  length  Johnson  undertook  the  adventure  in  which  so 

15  many  aspirants  had  failed.  In  the  thirty-sixth  year  after 
the  appearance  of  the  last  number  of  the  Spectator,  ap- 
peared the  first  number  of  the  Rambler.  From  March 
1750  to  March  1752,  this  paper  continued  to  come  out 
every  Tuesday  and  Saturday. 

20  24.  From  the  first  the  Rambler  was  enthusiastically  ad- 
mired by  a  few  eminent  men.  Richardson,  when  only  five 
numbers  had  appeared,  pronounced  it  equal,  if  not  superior, 
to  the  Spectator.  Young  and  Hartley  expressed  their 
approbation  not  less  warmly.  Bubb  Doddington,  among 

25  whose  many  faults  indifference  to  the  claims  of  genius 
and  learning  cannot  be  reckoned,  solicited  the  acquaintance 
of  the  writer.  In  consequence  probably  of  the  good  offices 
of  Doddington,  who  was  then  the  confidential  adviser  of 
Prince  Frederic,  two  of  His  Royal  Highness's  gentlemen 

30  carried  a  gracious  message  to  the  printing  office,  and  or- 
dered seven  copies  for  Leicester  House.  But  these  over- 
tures seem  to  have  been  very  coldly  received.  Johnson 
had  had  enough  of  the  patronage  of  the  great  to  last  him 
all  his  life,  and  was  not  disposed  to  haunt  any  other  door 

35  as  he  had  haunted  the  door  of  Chesterfield, 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  19 

-.25.  By  the  public  the  Rambler  was  at  first  very  coldly 
received.  Though  the  price  of  a  number  was  only  two- 
pence, the  sale  did  not  amount  to  five  hundred.  The 
profits  were  therefore  very  small.  But  as  soon  as  the 
flying  leaves  were  collected  and  reprinted,  they  became  5 
popular.  The  author  lived  to  see  thirteen  thousand 
copies  spread  over  England  alone.  Separate  editions  were 
published  for  the  Scotch  and  Irish  markets.-  A  large  party 
pronounced  the  style  perfect,  so  absolutely  perfect  that  in 
some  essays  it  would  be  impossible  for  the  writer  himself  10 
to  alter  a  single  word  for  the  better*.  Another  party,  not 
less  numerous,  vehemently  accused  him  of  having  cor- 
rupted the  purity  of  the  English  tongue.l  The  best  critics 
admitted  that  his  diction  was  too  monotonous,  too  obvi- 
ously artificial,  and  now  and  then  turgid  even  to  absurd-  15 
ity.  But  they  did  justice  to  the  acuteness  of  his  observa- 
tions on  morals  and  manners,  to  the  constant  precision  and 
frequent  brilliancy  of  his  language,  to  the  weighty  and 
magnificent  eloquence  of  many  serious  passages,  and  to  the 
solemn  yet  pleasing  humour  of  some  of  the  lighter  papers.  20 
On  the  question  of  precedence  between  Addisdn  and 
Johnson,  a  question  which,  seventy  years  ago,  was  much 
disputed,  posterity  has  pronounced  a  decision  from  which 
there  is  no  appeal.  Sir  Roger,  his  chaplain  and  his  butler^ 
AVill  Wimble  and  AVill  Honeycomb,  the  Vision  of  Mirza,  25 
the  Journal  of  the  Retired  Citizen,  the  Everlasting  Club, 
the  Dunmow  Flitch,  the  Loves  of  Hilpah  and  Shalum,  the 
Visit  to  the  Exchange,  and  the  Visit  to  the  Abbey,  are 
known  to  everybody.  But  many  men  and  women,  even  of 
highly  cultivated  minds,  are  unacquainted  with  Squire  30 
Bluster  and  Mrs.  Busy,  Quisquilius  and  Venustulus,  the 
Allegory  of  Wit  and  Learning,  the  Chronicle  of  the  Revo- 
lutions of  a  Garret,  and  the  sad  fate  of  Aningait  and  Ajut. 
26.  The  last  Rambler  was  written  in  a  sad  and  gloomy 
hour.  Mrs.  Johnson  hud  been  given  over  by  the  physi-  35 


20  LIFE   OF  SAMUEL 

cians.  Three  days  later  she  died.  She  left  her  husband 
almost  broken-hearted.  Many  people  had  been  surprised 
to  see  a  man  of  his  genius  and  learning  stooping  to  every 
drudgery,  and  denying  himself  almost  every  comfort,  for 
5  the  purpose  of  supplying  a  silly,  affected  old  woman  with 
superfluities,  which  she  accepted  with  but  little  gratitude. 
But  all  his  affection  had  been  concentrated  on  her.  He 
had  neither  brother  nor  sister,  neither  son  nor  daughter. 
To  him  she  was  beautiful  as  the  Gunnings,  and  witty  as 

10  Lady  Mary.  Her  opinion  of  his  writings  was  more  im- 
portant to  him  than  the  voice  of  the  pit  of  Drury  Lane 
Theatre  or  the  judgment  of  the  Monthly  Review.  The 
chief  support  which  had  sustained  him  through  the  most 
arduous  labour  of  his  life  was  the  hope  that  she  would  enjoy 

15  the  fame  and  the  profit  which  he  anticipated  from  his 
"Dictionary."  She  was  gone;  and  in  that  vast  labyrinth 
of  streets,  peopled  by  eight  hundred  thousand  human  be- 
ings, he  was  alone.  Yet  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  set 
himself,  as  he  expressed  it,  doggedly  to  work.  After  three 

20  more  laborious  years,  the  "'Dictionary"  was  at  length 
complete. 

27.  It  had  been  generally  supposed  that  this  great  work 
would  be  dedicated  to  the  eloquent  and  accomplished 
nobleman  to  whom  the  prospectus  had  been  addressed. 

25  He  well  knew  the  value  of  such  a  compliment;  and  there- 
fore, when  the  day  of  publication  drew  near,  he  exerted 
himself  to  soothe,  by  a  show  of  zealous  and  at  the  same 
time  of  delicate  and  judicious  kindness,  the  pride  which 
he  had  so  cruelly  wounded.  Since  the  Ji amblers  had 

30  ceased  to  appear,  the  town  had  been  entertained  by  a  jour- 
nal called  the  World,  to  which  many  men  of  high  rank 
and  fashion  contributed.  In  two  successive  numbers  of 
the  World  the  "Dictionary"  was,  to  use  the  modern 
phrase,  puffed  with  wonderful  skill.  The  writings  of 

35  Johnson  were  warmly   praised.     It   was  proposed  that  he 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  21 

should  be  invested  with  the  authority  of  a  Dictator,  nay, 
of  a  Pope,  over  our  language,  and  that  his  decisions  about 
the  meaning  and  the  spelling  of  words  should  be  received 
as  final.  His  two  folios,  it  was  said,  would  of  course  be 
bought  by  everybody  who  could  afford  to  buy  them.  It  5 
was  soon  known  that  these  papers  were  written  by  Chester- 
field. But  the  just  resentment  of  Johnson  was  not  to 
be  so  appeased.  In  a  letter  written  with  singular  energy 
and  dignity  of  thought  and  language,  he  repelled  the  tardy 
advances  of  his  patron.  The  "Dictionary"  came  forth  10 
without  a  dedication.  In  the  preface  the  author  truly  de- 
clared that  he  owed  nothing  to  the  great,  and  described  the 
difficulties  with  which  he  had  been  left  to  struggle  so  forci- 
bly and  pathetically  that  the  ablest  and  most  malevolent 
of  all  the  enemies  of  his  fame,  Home  Tooke,  never  could  15 
read  that  passage  without  tears. 

28.  The  public,  on  this  occasion,  did  Johnson  full  jus- 
tice, and  something  more  than  justice.     The  best  lexicogra- 
pher may  well  be  content  if  his  productions  are  received 
by  the  world  with  cold  esteem.     But  Johnson's  "  Diction-  20 
ary  "  was  hailed  with  an  enthusiasm  such  as  no  similar 
work  has  ever  excited.      It  was  indeed  the  first  dictionary 
which  could  be  read  with  pleasure.      The  definitions  show 

so  much  acuteness  of  thought  and  command  of  language, 
and  the  passages  quoted  from  poets,  divines,  and  philoso-  25 
phers  are  so  skilfully  selected,  that  a  leisure  hour  may 
always  be  very  agreeably  spent  in  turning  over  the  pages. 
The  faults  of  the  book  resolve  themselves,  for  the  most 
part,  into  one  great  fault.     Johnson  was  a  wretched  ety- 
mologist.    He   knew  little  or  nothing  of   any   Teutonic  30 
language  except  English,  which  indeed,  as  he  wrote  it, 
was  scarcely  a  Teutonic  language;  and  thus  he  was  abso- 
lutely at  the  mercy  of  Junius  and  Skinner. 

29.  The    "Dictionary,"    though   it    raised    Johnson's 
fame,  added  nothing  to  his  pecuniary  means.     The  fifteen  35 


22  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

hundred  guineas  which  the  booksellers  had  agreed  to  pay 
him  had  been  advanced  and  spent  before  the  last  sheets 
issued  from  the  press.  It  is  painful  to  relate  that,  twice 
in  the  course  of  the  year  which  followed  the  publication 
5  of  this  great  work,  he  was  arrested  and  carried  to  spung- 
ing-houses,  and  that  he  was  twice  indebted  for  his  liberty 
to  his  excellent  friend  Richardson.  It  was  still  necessary  for 
the  man  who  had  been  formally  saluted  by  the  highest  au- 
thority as  Dictator  of  the  English  language  to  supply  his 

10  wants  by  constant  toil.  He  abridged  his  "Dictionary." 
He  proposed  to  bring  out  an  edition  of  Shakspeare  by 
subscription;  and  many  subscribers  sent  in  their  names 
and  laid  down  their  money;  but  he  soon  found  the  task 
so  little  to  his  taste  that  he  turned  to  more  attractive  em- 

15  ployments.  He  contributed  many  papers  to  a  new  monthly 
journal,  which  was  called  the  Literary  Magazine.  Few  of 
these  papers  have  much  interest;  but  among  them  was  the 
very  best  thing  that  he  ever  wrote,  a  masterpiece  both  of 
reasoning  and  of  satirical  pleasantry,  the  review  of  fotljiy°r°" 

20    "  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  and  Origin  of  Evil." 

30.  In  the  spring  of  1758  Johnson  put  forth  the  first  of  a 
series  of  essays,  entitled  the  Idler.     During  two  years  these 
essays  continued  to  appear  weekly.      They  were  eagerly 
read,  widely  circulated,  and,  indeed,  impudently  pirated, 

25  while  they  were  still  in  the  original  form,  and  had  a  large 
sale  when  collected  into  volumes.  The  Idler  may  be  de- 
scribed as  a  second  part  of  the  Rambler,  somewhat  livelier 
and  somewhat  weaker  than  the  first  part. 

31.  While  Johnson  was  busy  with  his  Idlers,  his  mother, 
30  who  had  accomplished  her  ninetieth  year,  died  at  Lich- 

field.  It  was  long  since  he  had  seen  her;  but  he  had  not 
failed  to  contribute  largely,  out  of  his  small  means,  to  her 
comfort.  In  order  to  defray  the  charges  of  her  funeral, 
and  to  pay  some  debts  which  she  had  left,  he  wrote  a  little 
35  book  in  a  single  week,  and  sent  off  the  sheets  to  the  press 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  23 

without  reading  them  over.  A  hundred  pounds  were 
paid  him  for  the  copyright;  and  the  purchasers  had  great 
cause  to  be  pleased  with  their  bargain;  for  the  book  was 
"Rasselas." 

32.  The  success  of  "Rasselas"  was  great,  though  such    5 
ladies  as  Miss  Lydia  Languish  must  have  been  grievously 
disappointed  when  they  found  that  the  new  volume  from 
the  circulating  library  was  little  more  than  a  dissertation 
on  the  author's  favourite  theme,  the  "  Vanity  of  Human 
Wishes  ";  that  the  Prince  of  Abyssinia  was  without  a  mis-  10 
tress,  and  the  princess  without  a  lover;  and  that  the  story 
set  the  hero  and  the  heroine  down  exactly  where  it  had 
taken  them  up.     The  style  was  the  subject  of  much  eager 
controversy.    The  Monthly  Review  and  the  Critical  Review 
took  different  sides.     Many  readers  pronounced  the  writer  15 
a  pompous  pedant,  who  would  never  use  a  word  of  two 
syllables  where  it  was  possible  to  use  a  word  of  six,  and 
who  could  not  make  a  waiting  woman  relate  her  adven- 
tures without  balancing  every  noun  with  another  noun, 
and  every  epithet  with  another  epithet.      Another  party,  20 
not  less  zealous,  cited  with  delight  numerous  passages  in 
which  weighty  meaning  was  expressed  with  accuracy  and 
illustrated  with  splendour.     And  both  the  censure  and  the 
praise  were  merited. 

33.  About  the  plan  of  "  Rasselas  "  little  was  said  by  the  25 
critics;   and  yet  the  faults  of   the  plan  might   seem  to 
invite  severe  criticism.      Johnson  has  frequently  blamed 
Slmkspeare  for  neglecting  the  proprieties  of   time  and 
place,  and  for  ascribing  to  one  age  or  nation  the  manners 
;iiul  opinions  of  another.     Yet  Shakspeare  has  not  sinned  30 
in  this  way  more  grievously  than  Johnson.     Rasselas  and 
Imlac,  Nekayah  and   Pekuah,  are  evidently  meant  to  be 
Abyssinians  of    the  eighteenth   century:  for   the  Europe 
which  Imlac  describes  is  the  Europe  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury; and  the  inmates  of  the  Happy  Valley  talk  familiarly  35 


24  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

of  that  law  of  gravitation  which  Newton  discovered,  and 
which  was  not  fully  received  even  at  Cambridge  till  the 
eighteenth  century.  What  a  real  company  of  Abyssiniaus 
.  would  have  been  may  be  learned  from  Bruce's  "  Travels." 
5  But  Johnson,  not  content  with  turning  filthy  savages, 
ignorant  of  their  letters,  and  gorged  with  raw  steaks  cut 
from  living  cows,  into  philosophers  as  eloquent  and  en- 
lightened as  himself  or  his  friend  Burke,  and  into  ladies 
as  highly  accomplished  as  Mrs.  Lennox  or  Mrs.  Sheridan, 

10  transferred  the  whole  domestic  system  of  England  to 
Egypt.  Into  a  land  of  harems,  a  land  of  polygamy,  a 
land  where  women  are  married  without  ever  being  seen,  he 
introduced  the  flirtations  and  jealousies  of  our  ball-rooms. 
In  a  land  where  there  is  boundless  liberty  of  divorce,  wedlock 

15  is  described  as  the  indissoluble  compact.  "  A  youth  and 
maiden  meeting  by  chance,  or  brought  together  by  artifice, 
exchange  glances,  reciprocate  civilities,  go  home,  and 
dream  of  each  other.  Such,"  says  Rasselas,  "is  the  com- 
mon process  of  marriage."  Such  it  may  have  been,  and 

20  may  still  be,  in  London,  but  assuredly  not  at  Cairo.  A 
writer  who  was  guilty  of  such  improprieties  had  little  right 
to  blame  the  poet  who  made  Hector  quote  Aristotle,  and 
represented  Julio  Romano  as  flourishing  in  the  days  of 
the  oracle  of  DelphiV 

25  34.  By  such  exeHfons  as  have  been  described,  Johnson 
supported  himself  till  the  year  1762.  In  that  year  a  great 
change  in  his  circumstances  took  place.  He  had  from  a 
child  been  an  enemy  of  the  reigning  dynasty.  His  Jacobite 
prejudices  had  been  exhibited  with  little  disguise  both  in 

30  his  works  and  in  his  conversation.  Even  in  his  massy  and 
elaborate  "Dictionary,"  he  had,  with  a  strange  want  of 
taste  and  judgment,  inserted  bitter  and  contumelious  re- 
flections on  the  Whig  party.  The  excise,  which  was  a 
favourite  resource  of  Whig  financiers,  he  had  designated  as 

35  a  hateful  tax.     He  had  railed  against  the  commissioners 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  35 

of  excise  in  language  so  coarse  that  they  .had  seriously 
thought  of  prosecuting  him.  He  had  with  difficulty 
been  prevented  from  holding  up  the  Lord  Privy  Seal  by 
name  as  an  example  of  the  meaning  of  the  word  "  rene- 
gade." A  pension  he  had  defined  as  pay  given  to  a  state  5 
hireling  to  betray  hib  country;  a  pensioner  as  a  slave  of 
state  hired  by  a  stipend  to  obey  a  master.  It  seemed  un- 
likely that  the  author  of  these  definitions  would  himself 
be  pensioned.  But  that  was  a  time  of  wonders.  George 
the  Third  had  ascended  the  throne;  and  had,  in  the  course  10 
of  a  few  months,  disgusted  many  of  the  old  friends  and 
conciliated  many  of  the  old  enemies  of  his  house.  The 
city  was  becoming  mutinous.  Oxford  was  becoming  loyal. 
Cavendishes  and  Bentincks  were  murmuring.  Somersets 
and  Wyndhams  were  hastening  to  kiss  hands.  The  head  15 
of  the  treasury  was  now  Lord  Bute,  who  was  a  Tory,  and 
could  have  no  objection  to  Johnson's  Toryism.  Bute 
wished  to  be  thought  a  patron  of  men  of  letters;  and 
Johnson  was  one  of  the  most  eminent  and  one  of  the 
most  needy  men  of  letters  in  Europe.  A  pension  of  three  20 
hundred  a  year  was  graciously  offered,  and  with  very  little 
hesitation  accepted. 

35.  This  event  produced  a  change  in  Johnson's  whole 
way  of  life.     For  the  first  time  since  his  boyhood  he  no 
longer  felt  the  daily  goad  urging  him  to  the  daily  toil.     He  25 
was  at  liberty,  after  thirty  years  of  anxiety  and  drudgery, 

to  indulge  his  constitutional  indolence,  to  lie  in  bed  till 
two  in  the  afternoon,  and  to  sit  up  talking  till  four  in  the 
morning,  without  fearing  either  the  printer's  devil  or  the 
sheriff's  officer.  30 

36.  One  laborious  task  indeed  he  had   bound  himself 
to  perform.      He  had  received  large  subscriptions  for  his 
promised  edition  of   Shakspeare;    he  had  lived  on  those 
subscriptions  during  some  years :  and  he  could  not  without 
disgrace  omit  to  perform  his  part  of  the  contract.     His  35 


26  TJFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

friends  repeatedly  exhorted  him  to  make  an  effort;  and  lie 
repeatedly  resolved  to  do  so.  But,  notwithstanding  their 
exhortations  and  his  resolutions,  month  followed  month, 
year  followed  year,  and  nothing  was  done.  He  prayed 
5  fervently  against  his  idleness;  he  determined,  as  often  as 
he  received  the  sacrament,  that  he  would  no  longer  doze 
away  and  trifle  away  his  time;  but  the  spell  under  which  he 
lay  resisted  prayer  and  sacrament.  His  private  notes  at  this 
time  are  made  up  of  self-reproaches.  "  My  indolence,"  he 

10  wrote  on  Easter  Eve  in  1764,  "  has  sunk  into  grosser  slug- 
gishness. A  kind  of  strange  oblivion  has  overspread  me, 
so  that  I  know  not  what  has  become  of  the  last  year.'' 
Easter,  1765,  came,  and  found  him  still  in  the  same  state. 
"My  time,"  he  wrote,  "has  been  uuprofitably  spent,  and 

15  seems  as  a  dream  that  has  left  nothing  behind.  My  mem- 
ory grows  confused,  and  I  know  not  how  the  days  pass 
Nover  me."  Happily  for  his  honour,  the  charm  which  held 
him  captive  was  at  length  broken  by  no  gentle  or  friendly 
hand.  He  had  been  weak  enough  to  pay  serious  attention 

20  to  a  story  about  a  ghost  which  haunted  a  house  in  Cock 
Lane,  and  had  actually  gone  himself  with  some  of  his 
friends,  at  one  in  the  morning,  to  St.  John's  Church, 
Clerkenwell,  in  the  hope  of  receiving  a  communication 
from  the  perturbed  spirit.  But  the  spirit,  though  adjured 

25  with  all  solemnity,  remained  obstinately  silent;  and  it 
soon  appeared  that  a  naughty  girl  of  eleven  had  been 
amusing  herself  by  making  fools  of  so  many  philosophers. 
Churchill,  who,  confident  in  his  powers,  drunk  with  popu- 
larity, and  burning  with  party  spirit,  was  looking  for  some 

30  man  of  established  fame  and  Tory  politics  to  insult,  cele- 
brated the  Cock  Lane  Ghost  in  three  cantos,  nicknamed 
Johnson  "  Pomposo,"  asked  where  the  book  was  which 
had  been  so  long  promised  and  so  liberally  paid  for.  and 
directly  accused  the  great  moralist  of  cheating.  This 

35  terrible  word  proved  effectual;  and  in  October,  1765,  ap- 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  27 

peared,  after  a  delay  of  nine  years,  the  new  edition  of 


*     "Tit  (r*  1  -"7 

37.  This  publication,  saved  Johnson's  character  for  hon-    ; 
esty,  but  added  nothing  to  the  fame  of  his  abilities  and 
learning.      The  preface,  though  it  contains  some  good  5 
passages,  is  not  in  his  best  manner.     The  most  valuable 
notes  are  those  in  which  he  had  an  opportunity  of  show- 
ing how  attentively  he  had  during  many  years  observed 
human  life  and  human  nature.     The  best  specimen  is  the     ^ 
note  on  the  character  of  Polonim.      Nothing  so  good  is  10» 
to  be  found  even  in  Wilhelm  Meister's  admirable  examina- 
tion of  "  Hamlet."     But  here  praise  must  end.     It  would 
be  difficult  to  name  a  more  slovenly,  a  more  worthless  edi- 
tion of  any  great  classic.      The  reader  may  turn  over  play  - 
after  play  without  finding  one  happy  conjectural  enj.enda^l5^ 
tion,  or  one  ingenious  and  satisfactory  explanation  of  a 
passage  which  had  baffled  preceding  commentators.    John- 
son had,  in  his  prospectus,  told  the  world  that  he  was 
peculiarly  fitted  for  the  task  which  he  had  undertaken, 
because  he  had,  as  a  lexigggrj/plier,  been  under  the  neces-  20 
sity  of  taking  a  wider  view  of  the  English  language  than 
any  of  his  predecessors.     That  his  knowledge  of  our  liter- 
ature was  extensive  is  indisputable.     But,  unfortunately, 
he  had  altogether  neglected  that  very  part  of  our  litera- 
ture with  which  it  is  especially  desirable  that  an  editor  of  25 
Shakspeare  should  be  conversant.     It  is  dangerous  to  assert 
a  negative.     Yet  little  will  be  risked  by  the  assertion,  that 
in  the  two  folio  volumes  of   the  "  English  Dictionary  " 
there  is  not  a  single  passage  quoted  from  any  dramatist  of 
the  Elizabethan  age,  except  Shakspeare  and  Ben.      Even  30 
from  Ben  the  quotations  are  few.     Johnson  might  easily, 
in  a  few  months,  have  made  himself  well  acquainted  with  ,  .t 
every  old  play  that  was  extant.     But  it  never  seems  to^jC^ 
have  occurred  to  him  that  this  was  a  necessary  preparation 
for  the  work  which  he  had  undertaken.     He  would  doubt-  30 


28  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

less  have  admitted  that  it  would  be  the  height  of  absurdity 
in  a  man  who  was  not  familiar  with  the  works  of  ^Eschylus 
and  Euripides  to  publish  an  edition  of  Sophocles.  Yet  he 
ventured  to  publish  an  edition  of  Shakspeare,  without 
5  having  ever  in  his  life,  as  far  as  can  be  discovered,  read  a 
single  scene  of  Massinger,  Ford,  Decker,  Webster,  Mar- 
low,  Beaumont,  or  Fletcher.  His  detractors  were  noisy 
and  scurrilous.  Those  who  most  loved  and  honoured  him 
had  little  to  say  in  praise  of  the  manner  in  which  he  had 

10  discharged  the  duty  of  a  commentator.  He  had,  how- 
ever, acquitted  himself  of  a  debt  which  had  long  lain 
heavy  on  his  conscience ;  and  he  sank  back  into  the  repose 
from  which  the  sting  of  satire  had  roused  him.  He  long 
continued  to  live  upon  the  fame  which  he  had  already  won. 

15  He  was  honoured  by  the  University  of  Oxford  with  a  Doc- 
tor's degree,  by  the  Eoyal  Academy  with  a  professorship, 
and  by  the  King  with  an  interview,  in  which  his  Majesty 
most  graciously  expressed  a  hope  that  so  excellent  a  writer 
would  not  cease  to  write.  In  the  interval,  however,  be- 

20  tween  1765  and  1775,  Johnson  published  only  two  or  three 
political  tracts,  the  longest  of  which  he  could  have  pro- 
duced in  forty-eight  hours,  if  he  had  worked  as  he  worked 
on  the  life  of  Savage  and  on  "Kasselas." 

38.  But,  though  his  pen  was  now  idle,  his  tongue  was 

25  active.  The  influence  exercised  by  his  conversation,  di- 
rectly upon  those  with  whom  he  lived,  and  indirectly  on 
the  whole  literary  world,  was  altogether  without  a  par- 
allel. Hie  colloquial  talents  were  indeed  of  the  highest 
order.  He  had  strong  sense,  quick  discernment,  wit, 

:>0  humour,  immense  knowledge  of  literature  and  of  life,  and 
an  infinite  store  of  curious  anecdotes.  As  respected  style, 
he  spoke  far  better  than  he  wrote.  Every  sentence  which 
dropped  from  his  lips  was  as  correct  in  structure  as  the 
most  nicely  balanced  period  of  the  Rambler.  But  in  his 

35  talk  there  was  no  pompous  triads,  and  little  more  than  a 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  29 

fair  proportion  of  words  in  osity  and  ation.  All  was  sim- 
plicity, ease,  and  vigour.  He  uttered  his  short,  weighty, 
and  pointed  sentences  with  a  power  of  voice,  and  a  just- 
ness and  energy  of  emphasis,  of  which  the  effect  was 
rather  increased  than  diminished  by  the  rollings  of  his  5 
huge  form,  and  by  the  asthmatic  gaspings  and  puffings  in 
which  the  peals  of  his  eloquence  generally  ended.  Nor 
did  the  laziness  which  made  him  unwilling  to  sit  down  to 
his  desk  prevent  him  from  giving  instruction  or  entertain- 
ment  orally.  To  discuss  questions  of  taste,  of  learning,  10 

istry,  in  language  so  exact  and  so  forcible  that  it 
litmight  have  been  printed  without  the  alteration  of  a  word, 
was  to  him  no  exertion,  but  a  pleasure.  He  loved,  as  he 
said,  to  fold  his  legs  and  have  his  talk  out.  He  was  ready 
to  bestow  the  overflowings  of  his  full  mind  on  anybody  15 
who  would  start  a  subject,  on  a  fellow-passenger  in  a  stage 
coach,  or  on  the  person  who  sate  at  the  same  table  with 
him  in  an  eating-house.  But  his  conversation  was  no- 
where so  brilliant  and  striking  as  when  he  was  surrounded 
by  a  few  friends,  whose  abilities  and  knowledge  enabled  20 
them,  as  he  once  expressed  it,  to  send  him  back  every  ball 
that  he  threw.  Some  of  these,  in  1764,  formed  them- 
selves into  a  club,  which  gradually  became  a  formidable 
power  in  the  commonwealth  of  letters.  The  verdicts 
pronounced  by  this  conclave  on  new  books  were  speedily  25 
known  over  all  London,  and  were  sufficient  to  sell  off  a 
whole  edition  in  a  day,  or  to  condemn  the  sheets  to  the 
service  of  the  trunk-maker  and  the  pastry-cook.  Nor 
shall  we  think  this  strange  when  we  consider  what  great 
and  various  talents  and  acquirements  met  in  the  little  30 
fraternity.  Goldsmith  was  the  representative  of  poetry  and 
light  literature,  Eeynolds  of  the  arts,  Burke  of  politi- 
cal eloquence  and  political  philosophy.  There,  too,  were 
Gibbon,  the  greatest  historian,  and  Jones,  the  greatest 
linguist,  of  the  age.  Garrick  brought  to  the  meetings  his  35 


30  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

inexhaustible  pleasantry,  his  incomparable  mimicry,  and 
his  consummate  knowledge  of  stage  effect.  Among  the 
most  constant  attendants  were  two  high-born  and  high- 
bred gentlemen,  closely  bound  together  by  friendship,  but 
5  of  widely  different  characters  and  habits;  Bennet  Langton, 
distinguished  by  his  skill  in  Greek  literature,  by  the  ortho- 
doxy of  his  opinions,  and  by  the  sanctity  of  his  life ;  and 
Topham  Beauclerk,  renowned  for  his  amours,  his  know- 
ledge of  the  gay  world,  his  fastidious  taste,  and  his  sar- 

10  castic  wit.  To  predominate  over  such  a  society  was  not 
easy.  Yet  even  over  such  a  society  Johnson  predomi- 
nated. Burke  might  indeed  have  disputed  the  supremacy 
to  which  others  were  under  the  necessity  of  submitting. 
But  Burke,  though  not  generally  a  very  patient  listener, 

15  was  content  to  take  the  second  part  when  Johnson  was 
present;  and  the  club  itself,  consisting  of  so  many  emi- 
nent men,  is  to  this  day  popularly  designated  as  Johnson's 
Club. 
39.  Among  the  members  of  this  celebrated   body  was 

20  one  to  whom  it  has  owed  the  greater  part  of  its  celebrity, 
yet  who  was  regarded  with  little  respect  by  his  brethren, 
and  had  not  without  difficulty  obtained  a  seat  among 
them.  This  was  James  Boswell,  a  young  Scotch  lawyer, 
heir  to  an  honourable  name  and  a  fair  estate.  That  he  was 

25  a  coxcomb  and  a  bore,  weak,  vain,  pushing,  curious,  gar- 
rulous, was  obvious  to  all  who  were  acquainted  with  him. 
That  he  could  not  reason,  that  he  had  no  wit,  no  humour, 
no  eloquence,  is  apparent  from  his  writings.  And  yet  his 
writings  are  read  beyond  the  Mississippi,  and  under  the 

30  Southern  Cross,  and  are  likely  to  be  read  as  long  as  the 
English  exists,  either  as  a  living  or  as  a  dead  language. 
Nature  had  made  him  a  slave  and  an  idolater.  His  mind 
resembled  those  creepers  which  the  botanists  call  parasites, 
and  which  can  subsist  only  by  clinging  round  the  stems  and 

35  imbibing  the  juices  of  stronger  plants.      He  must  have 


31 

fastened  himself  on  somebody.      He  might  have  fastened 
himself  on  Wilkes,  and  have  become  the  fiercest  patriot  in 
the  Bill  of  Rights  Society.    He  might  have  fastened  himself 
on  Whitfield,  and  have  become  the  loudest  field  preacher 
among  the  Calvinistic  Methodists.      In  a  happy  hour  he    5 
fastened  himself  on  Johnson.      The  pair  might  seem  ill 
matched.     For  Johnson  had  early  been  prejudiced  against 
BoswelPs  country.     To  a  man  of  Johnson's  strong  under- 
standing and  irritable  temper,  the  silly  egotism  and  adula- 
tion of  Boswell  must  have  been  as  teasing  as  the  constant  10 
buzz  of  a  fly.    Johnson  hated  to  be  questioned ;  and  Boswell 
was  eternally  catechising  him  on  all  kinds  of  subjects,  and 
sometimes  propounded  such  questions  as  "  What  would  you 
do,  sir,  if  you  were  locked  up  in  a  tower  with  a  baby?" 
Johnson  was  a  water  drinker;  and  Boswell  was  a  wine-  15 
bibber,  and  indeed  little  better  than  a  habitual  sot.     It 
was  impossible  that  there  should  be  perfect  harmony  be- 
tween two  such  companions.     Indeed,  the  great  man  was 
sometimes  provoked  into  fits  of  passion  in  which  he  said 
things  which  the  small  man,  during  a  few  hours,  serious-  20 
ly  resented.      Every  quarrel,  however,  was  soon  made  up. 
During  twenty  years  the   disciple  continued  to  worship 
the  master :  the  master "  continued  to  scold  the  disciple,  to 
sneer  at  him,  and  to  love  him.      The  two  friends  ordina- 
rily resided  at  a  great  distance  from  each  other.      Boswell  25 
practised  in  the  Parliament  House  of    Edinburgh,   and 
could  pay  only  occasional  visits  to  London.     During  those 
visits  his  chief  business  was  to  watch  Johnson,  to  discover 
all  Johnson's  habits,  to  turn  the  conversation  to  subjects 
about  which  Johnson  was  likely  to  say  something  remark-  30 
able,  and  to  fill  quarto  note  books  with  minutes  of  what 
Johnson  had  said.     In  this  way  were  gathered  the  mate- 
rials out  of  which  was  afterwards  constructed  the  most 
interesting  biographic'al  work  in  the  world. 
40.  Soon  after  the  club  began  to  exist,  Johnson  formed  35 


32  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

a  connection  less  important  indeed  to  his  fame,  but  much 
more  important  to  his  happiness,  than  his  connection  with 
Boswell.  Henry  Thrale,  one  of  the  most  opulent  brewers 
in  the  kingdom,  a  man  of  sound  and  cultivated  under- 
5  standing,  rigid  principles,  and  liberal  spirit,  was  married 
to  one  of  those  clever,  kind-hearted,  engaging,  vain,  pert 
young  women,  who  are  perpetually  doing  or  saying  what  is 
not  exactly  right,  but  who,  do  or  say  what  they  may,  are 
always  agreeable.  In  1765  the  Thrales  became  acquainted 

10  with  Johnson;  and  the  acquaintance  ripened  fast  into 
friendship.  They  were  astonished  and  delighted  by  the 
brilliancy  of  his  conversation.  They  were  flattered  by  find- 
ing that  a  man  so  widely  celebrated,  preferred  their  house  to 
any  other  in  London.  Even  the  peculiarities  which  seemed 

15  to  unfit  him  for  civilised  society,  his  gesticulations,  his 
rollings,  his  puffings,  his  mutterings,  the  strange  way  in 
which  he  put  on  his  clothes,  the  ravenous  eagerness  with 
which  he  devoured  his  dinner,  his  fits  of  melancholy,  his 
fits  of  anger,  his  frequent  rudeness,  his  occasional  ferocity, 

20  increased  the  interest  which  his  new  associates  took  in 
him.  For  these  things  were  the  cruel  marks  left  behind 
by  a  life  which  had  been  one  long  conflict  with  disease  and 
with  adversity.  In  a  vulgar  hack  writer  such  oddities  would 
have  excited  only  disgust.  But  in  a  man  of  genius,  learn- 

25  ing,  and  virtue  their  effect  was  to  add  pity  to  admiration 
and  esteem.  Johnson  soon  had  an  apartment  at  the  brew- 
ery in  Southwark,  and  a  still  more  pleasant  apartment  at 
the  villa  of  his  friends  on  Streatham  Common.  A  large 
part  of  every  year  he  passed  in  those  abodes,  abodes  which 

30  must  have  seemed  magnificent  and  luxurious  indeed>  when 
compared  with  the  dens  in  which  he  had  generally  been 
lodged.  But  his  chief  pleasures  were  derived  from  what 
the  astronomer  of  his  Abyssinian  tale  called  "  the  endear- 
ing elegance  of  female  friendship. "  Mrs.  Thrale  rallied 

35  him,  soothed  him,  coaxed   him,  and,  if    she  sometimes 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  33 

provoked  him  by  her  flippancy,  made  ample  amends  by 
listening  to  his  reproofs  with  angelic  sweetness  of  temper. 
When  he  was  diseased  in  body  and  in  mind,  she  was  the 
most  tender  of  nurses.  No  comfort  that  wealth  could 
purchase,  no  contrivance  that  womanly  ingenuity,  set  to  5 
work  by  womanly  compassion,  could  devise,  was  wanting 
to  his  sick-room.  He  requited  her  kindness  by  an  affec- 
tion pure  as  the  affection  of  a  father,  yet  delicately  tinged 
with  a  gallantry  which,  though  awkward,  must  have  been 
more  flattering  than  the  attentions  of  a  crowd  of  the  fools  10 
who  gloried  in  the  names,  now  obsolete,  of  Buck  and  Macca- 
roni.  It  should  seem  that  a  full  half  of  Johnson's  life, 
during  about  sixteen  years,  was  passed  under  the  roof  of 
the  Thrales.  He  accompanied  the  family  sometimes  to 
Bath,  and  sometimes  to  Brighton,  once  to  Wales,  and  once  15 
to  Paris.  But  he  had  at  the  same  time  a  house  in  one  of 
the  narrow  and  gloomy  courts  on  the  north  of  Fleet  Street. 
In  the  garrets  was  his  library,  a  large  and  miscellaneous 
collection  of  books,  falling  to  pieces  and  begrimed  with 
dust.  On  a  lower  floor  he  sometimes,  but  very  rarely,  20 
regaled  a  friend  with  a  plain  dinner,  a  veal  pie,  or  a  leg  of 
lamb  and  spinage,  and  a  rice  pudding.  Nor  was  the  dwell- 
ing uninhabited  during  his  long  absences.  It  was  the 
home  of  the  most  extraordinary  assemblage  of  inmates 
that  ever  was  brought  together.  At  the  head  of  the  estab-  25 
lishment  Johnson  had  placed  an  old  lady  named  Williams, 
whose  chief  recommendations  were  her  blindness  and  her 
poverty.  But,  in  spite  of  her  murmurs  and  reproaches, 
he  gave  an  asylum  to  another  lady  who  was  as  poor  as 
herself,  Mrs.  Desmoulins,  whose  family  he  had  known  30 
many  years  before  in  Staffordshire.  Room  was  found  for 
the  daughter  of  Mrs.  Desmoulins,  and  for  another  desti- 
tute damsel,  who  was  generally  addressed  as  Miss  Carmi- 
chael,  but  whom  her  generous  host  called  Polly.  An  old 
quack  doctor  named  Levett,  who  bled  and  dosed  coal-  35 
3 


34  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

heavers  and  hackney  coachmen,  and  received  for  fees 
crusts  of  bread,  bits  of  bacon,  glasses  of  gin,  and  some- 
times a  little  copper,  completed  this  strange  menagerie. 
All  these  poor  creatures  were  at  constant  war  with  each 
5  other,  and  with  Johnson's  negro  servant  Frank.  Some- 
times, indeed,  they  transferred  their  hostilities  from  the 
servant  to  the  master,  complained  that  a  better  table  was 
not  kept  for  them,  and  railed  or  maundered  till  their  bene- 
factor was  glad  to  make  his  escape  to  Streatham,  or  to 

10  the  Mitre  Tavern.  And  yet  he,  who  was  generally  the 
haughtiest  and  most  irritable  of  mankind,  who  was  but  too 
prompt  to  resent  anything  which  looked  like  a  slight  on 
the  part  of  a  purse-proud  bookseller,  or  of  a  noble  and 
powerful  patron,  bore  patiently  from  mendicants,  who, 

15  but  for  his  bounty,  must  have  gone  to  the  workhouse, 
insults  more  provoking  than  those  for  which  he  had 
knocked  down  Osborne  and  bidden  defiance  to  Chester- 
field. Year  after  year  Mrs.  Desmoulins,  Polly,  and  Le- 
vett  continued  to  torment  him  and  to  live  upon  him. 

41.  The  course  of  life  which  has  been  described  was 
interrupted  in  Johnson's  sixty-fourth  year  by  an  impor- 
tant event.  He  had  early  read  an  account  of  the  Hebri- 
des, and  had  been  much  interested  by  learning  that  there 
was  so  near  him  a  land  peopled  by  a  race  which  was  still 

25  as  rude  and  simple  as  in  the  middle  ages.  A  wish  to  be- 
come intimately  acquainted  with  a  state  of  society  so  ut- 
terly unlike  all  that  he  had  ever  seen  frequently  crossed 
his  mind.  But  it  is  not  probable  that  his  curiosity  would 
have  overcome  his  habitual  sluggishness,  and  his  love  of 

30  the  smoke,  the  mud,  and  the  cries  of  London,  had  not 
Boswell  importuned  him  to  attempt  the  adventure,  and 
offered  to  be  his  sojaire.  At  length,  in  August,  1773, 
Johnson  crossed  the  Highland  line,  and  plunged  coura- 
geously into  what  was  then  considered,  by  most  Englishmen, 

35  as  a  dreary  and  perilous   wilderness.      After   wandering 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  35 

about  two  months  through  the  Celtic  region,  sometimes  in 
rude  boats  which  did  not  protect  him  from  the  rain,  and 
sometimes  on  small  shaggy  ponies  which  could  hardly  bear 
his  weight,  he  returned  to  his  old  haunts  with  a  mind  full 
of  new  images  and  new  theories.  During  the  following  5 
year  he  employed  himself  in  recording  his  adventures. 
About  the  beginning  of  1775,  his  "Journey  to  the  Heb- 
rides "  was  published,  and  was,  during  some  weeks,  the 
chief  subject  of  conversation  in  all  circles  in  which  any 
attention  was  paid  to  literature.  The  book  is  still  read  10 
with  pleasure.  The  narrative  is  entertaining;  the  specu- 
lations, whether  sound  or  unsound,  are  always  ingenious; 
and  the  style,  though  too  stiff  and  pompous,  is  somewhat 
easier  and  more  graceful  than  that  of  his  early  writings. 
His  prejudice  against  the  Scotch  had  at  length  become  15 
little  more  than  matter  of  jest;  and  whatever  remained  of 
the  old  feeling  had  been  effectually  removed  by  the  kind 
and  respectful  hospitality  with  which  he  had  been  received 
in  every  part  of  Scotland.  It  was,  of  course,  not  to  be 
expected  that  an  Oxonian -Tory  should  praise  the  Presby-  20 
terian  polity  and  ritual,  or  that  an  eye  accustomed  to  the 
hedgerows  and  parks  of  England  should  not  be  struck  by 
the  bareness  of  Berwickshire  and  East  Lothian.  But  even 
in  censure  Johnson's  tone  is  not  unfriendly.  The  most 
enlightened  Scotchmen,  with  Lord  Mansfield  at  their  25 
head,  were  well  pleased.  But  some  foolish  and  ignorant 
Scotchmen  were  moved  to  anger  by  a  little  unpalatable 
truth  which  was  mingled  with  much  eulogy,  and  assailed 
him,  whom  they  chose  to  consider  as  the  enemy  of  their 
country,  with  libels  much  more  dishonourable  to  their  30 
country  than  anything  that  he  had  ever  said  or  written. 
They  published  paragraphs  in  the  newspapers,  articles  in 
the  magazines,  sixpenny  pamphlets,  five-shilling  books. 
One  scribbler  abused  Johnson  for  being  blear-eyed;  an- 
other for  being  a  pensioner;  a  third  informed  the  world  35 


36  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

that  one  of  the  Doctor's  uncles  had  been  convicted  of 
felony  in  Scotland,  and  had  found  that  there  was  in  that 
country  one  tree  capable  of  supporting  the  weight  of  an 
Englishman.  Macpherson,  whose  "  Fingal  "  had  been 
5  proved  in  the  "  Journey  "  to  be  an  impudent  forgery, 
threatened  to  take  vengeance  with  a  cane.  The  only  effect 
of  this  threat  was  that  Johnson  reiterated  the  charge  of 
forgery  in  the  most  contemptuous  terms,  and  walked  about, 
during  some  time,  with  a  cudgel,  which,  if  the  impostor 

10  had  not  been  too  wise  to  encounter  it,  would  assuredly 

have  descended  upon  him,  to  borrow  the  sublime  language 

of  his  own  epic  poem,  "  like  a  hammer  on  the  red  son  of 

"--  * — nrf  " 

*%%^  Of  flther  assailants  Johnson  took  no  notice  what- 

15  ever.  He  had  early  resolved  never  to  be  drawn  into  con- 
troversy ;  and  he  adhered  to  his  resolution  with  a  steadfast- 
ness which  is  the  more  extraordinary,  because  he  was,  both 
intellectually  and  morally,  of  the  stuff  of  which  contro- 
versialists are  made.  In  conversation,  he  was  a  singularly 

20  eager,  acute,  and  pertinacious  disputant.  When  at  a  loss 
for  good  reasons,  he  had  recourse  to  sophistry;  and,  when 
heated  by  altercation,  he  made  unsparing  use  of  sarcasm 
and  invective.  But,  when  he  took  his  pen  in  his  hand. 
his  whole  character  seemed  to  be  changed.  A  hundred 

25  bad  writers  misrepresented  him  and  reviled  him;  but  not 
one  of  the  hundred  could  boast  of  having  been  thought 
by  him  worthy  of  a  refutation,  or  even  of  a  retort.  The 
Kenricks,  Campbells,  MacNicols,  and  Hendersons  did 
their  best  to  annoy  him,  in  the  hope  that  he  would  give 

30  them  importance  by  answering  them.  But  the  reader  will 
in  vain  search  his  works  for  any  allusion  to  Keurick  or 
Campbell,  to  MacNicol  or  Henderson.  One  Scotchman, 
bent  on  vindicating  the  fame  of  Scotch  learning,  defied 
him  to  the  combat  in  a  detestable  Latin  hexameter. 

35  "  Maxiiue,  si  tu  vis,  cupio  contendere  tecuin." 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  37 

But  Johnson  took  no  notice  of  the  challenge.     He  had 
learned,  both  from  his  own  observation  and  from  literary 
history,  in  which  he  was  deeply  read,  that  the  place  of 
books  in  the  public  estimation  is  fixed,  not  by  what  is 
written  about  them,  but  by  what  is  written  in  them;  and    5 
that  an  author  whose  works  are  likely  to  live  is  very  unwise 
if  he  stoops  to  wrangle  with  detractors  whose  works  are 
certain  to  die.     He  always  maintained  that  fame  was  a 
shuttlecock  which  could  be  kept  up  only  by  being  beaten 
back,  as  well  as  beaten  forward,  and  which  would  soon  fall  10 
if  there  were  only  one  battledore.      No  saying  was  oftener  ov« 
in  his  mouth  than  that  fine  ap;oj)h)tliegm  of  Bentley,  that 

no  man  was  ever  written  down  but  by  himself. 

j , 

43.  Unhappily,  a  few  months  after  the  appearance  of 
the  "Journey  to  the  Hebrides,"  Johnson  did  what  none  15 
of  his  envious  assailants  could  have  done,  and  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  succeeded  in  writing  himself  down.  The  dis- 
putes between  England  and  her  American  colonies  had 
reached  a  point  at  which  no  amicable  adjustment  was  pos- 
sible. Civil  war  Avas  evidently  impending;  and  the  minis-  20 
ters  seem  to  have  thought  that  the  eloquence  of  Johnson 
might  with  advantage  be  employed  to  inflame  the  nation 
against  the  opposition  here,  and  against  the  rebels  beyond 
the  Atlantic.  He  had  already  written  two  or  three  tracts 
in  defence  of  the  foreign  and  domestic  policy  of  the  gov-  25 
ernment;  and  those  tracts,  though  hardly  worthy  of  him, 
were  much  superior  to  the  crowd  of  pamphlets  which  lay 
on  the  counters  of  Almon  and  Stockdale.  But  his  "  Taxa- 
tion no  Tyranny"  was  a  pitiable  failure.  The  very  title 
was  a  silly  phrase,  which  can  have  been  recommended  to  30 
his  choice  by  nothing  but  a  jingling  alliteration  which  he 
ought  to  have  despised.  The  arguments  were  such  as  boys 
use  in  debating  societies.  The  pleasantry  was  as  awkward 
as  the  gambols  of  a  hippopotamus.  Even  Boswell  was 
forced  to  own  that,  in  this  unfortunate  piece,  he  could  de-  35 


•38  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

tect  no  trace  of  his  master's  powers.  The  general  opinion 
was  that  the  strong  faculties  which  had  produced  the 
"  Dictionary  "  and  the  Rambler  were  beginning  to  feel  the 
effect  of  time  and  of  disease,  and  that  the  old  man  would 
5  best  consult  his  credit  by  writing  no  more. 

44.  But  this  was  a  great  mistake.  Johnson  had  failed, 
not  because  his  mind  was  less  vigorous  than  when  he  wrote 
"  Rasselas  "  in  the  evenings  of  a  week,  but  because  he  had 
foolishly  chosen,  or  suffered  others  to  choose  for  him,  a 

10  subject  such  as  he  would  at  no  time  have  been  competent 
to  treat.  He  was  in  no  sense  a  statesman.  He  never  will- 
ingly read  or  thought  or  talked  about  affairs  of  state.  He 
loved  biography,  literary  history,  the  history  of  manners; 
but  political  history  was  positively  distasteful  to  him.  The 

15  question  at  issue  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother 
country  was  a  question  about  which  he  had  really  nothing 
to  say.  He  failed,  therefore,  as  the  greatest  men  must  fail 
when  they  attempt  to  do  that  for  which  they  are  unfit;  as 
Burke  would  have  failed  if  Burke  had  tried  to  write  come- 

20  dies  like  those  of  Sheridan ;  as  Keynolds  would  have  failed 
if  Keynolds  had  tried  to  paint  landscapes  like  those  of 
Wilson.  Happily,  Johnson  soon  had  an  opportunity  of 
proving  most  signally  that  his  failure  was  not  to  be  ascribed 
to  intellectual  decay. 

25  -  45.  On  Easter  Eve,  1777,  some  persons,  deputed  by  a 
meeting  which  consisted  of  forty  of  the  first  booksellers  in 
London,  called  upon  him.  Though  he  had  some  scruples 
about  doing  business  at  that  season,  he  received  his  visit- 
ors with  much  civility.  They  came  to  inform  him  that 

30  a  new  edition  of  the  English  poets,  from  Cowley  down- 
wards, was  in  contemplation,  and  to  ask  him  to  furnish 
short  biographical  prefaces.  He  readily  undertook  the  task, 
a  task  for  which  he  was  pre-eminently  qualified.  His 
knowledge  of  the  literary  history  of  England  since  the 

§5  Restoration  was  unrivalled.     That  knowledge  he  had  de- 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  39 

rived  partly  from  books,  and  partly  from  sources  which 
had  long  been  closed;  from  old  Grub  Street  traditions; 
from  the  talk  of  forgotten  poetasters  and  pamphleteers 
who  had  long  been  lying  in  parish  vaults;  from  the  recol- 
lections of  such  men  as  Gilbert  Walmesley,  who  had  con-  5 
versed  with  the  wits  of  Button;  Gibber,  who  had  mutilated 
the  plays  of  two  generations  of  dramatists;  Orrery,  who 
had  been  admitted  to  the  society  of  Swift;  and  Savage, 
who  had  rendered  services  of  no  very  honourable  kind  to 
Pope.  The  biographer  therefore  sate  down  to  his  task  with  10 
a  mind  full  of  matter.  He  had  at  first  intended  to  give 
only  a  paragraph  to  every  minor  poet,  and  only  four  or 
five  pages  to  the  greatest  name.  But  the  flood  of  anecdote 
and  criticism  overflowed  the  narrow  channel.  The  work, 
which  was  originally  meant  to  consist  only  of  a  few  sheets,  15 
swelled  into  ten  volumes,  small  volumes,  it  is  true,  and  not 
closely  printed.  The  first  four  appeared  in  1779,  the  re- 
maining six  in  1781. 

46.  The  "Lives  of  the  Poets"  are,  on  the  whole,  the 
best  of  Johnson's  works.     The  narratives  are  as  entertain-  20 
ing  as  any  novel.      The  remarks  on  life  and  on  human 
nature  are  eminently  shrewd  and  profound.      The  criti- 
cisms are  often  excellent,  and,  even   when  grossly  and 
provokingly  unjust,  well  deserve  to  be  studied.     For,  how- 
ever erroneous  they  may  be,  they  are  never  silly.      They  25 
are  the  judgments  of  a  mind  trammelled  by  prejudice 
and  deficient  in  sensibility,  but  vigorous  and  acute.     They 
therefore  generally  contain  a  portion  of   valuable  truth 
which  deserves  to  be  separated  from  the  alloy;  and,  at  the 
very  worst,  they  mean  something,  a  praise  to  which  much  30 
of  what  is  called  criticism  in  our  time  has  no  pretensions. 

47.  Savage's  "  Life  "  Johnson  reprinted  nearly  as  it  had 
appeared  in  1744.     Whoever,  after  reading  that  life,  will 
turn  to  the  other  lives  will  be  struck  by  the  difference  of 
style.     Since  Johnson  had   been  at  ease  in  his  circum-  35 


40  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

stances  he  had  written  little  and  had  talked  much.  When, 
therefore,  he,  after  the  lapse  of  years,  resumed  his  pen, 
the  mannerism  which  he  had  contracted  while  he  was  in 
the  constant  habit  of  elaborate  composition  was  less  per- 

5  ceptible  than  formerly;  and  his  diction  frequently  had  a 
colloquial  ease  which  it  had  formerly  wanted.  The  im- 
provement may  be  discerned  by  a  skilful  critic  in  the 
"Journey  to  the  Hebrides,"  and  in  the  "Lives  of  the 
Poets  "  is  so  obvious  that  it  cannot  escape  the  notice  of  the 

10  most  careless  reader. 

48.  Among  the  lives  the  best  are  perhaps  those  of  Cow- 
ley,  Dryden,  and  Pope.      The  very  worst  is,  beyond   all 
doubt,  that  of  Gray. 

49.  This  great  work  at  once  became  popular.     There 
15  was,  indeed,  much  just  and  much  unjust  censure:   but 

even  those  who  were  loudest  in  blame  were  attracted  by 
the  book  in  spite  of  themselves.  Malone  computed  the 
gains  of  the  publishers  at  five  or  six  thousand  pounds. 
But  the  writer  was  very  poorly  remunerated.  Intending 

20  at  first  to  write  very  short  prefaces,  he  had  stipulated  for 
only  two  hundred  guineas.  The  booksellers,  when  they 
saw  how  far  his  performance  had  surpassed  his  promise, 
added  only  another  hundred.  Indeed,  Johnson,  though 
he  did  not  despise,  or  affect  to  despise,  money,  and  though 

25  his  strong  sense  and  long  experience  ought  to  have  quali- 
fied him  to  protect  his  own  interests,  seems  to  have  been 
singularly  unskilful  and  unlucky  in  his  literary  bargains. 
He  was  generally  reputed  the  first  English  writer  of  his 
time.  Yet  several  writers  of  his  time  sold  their  copyrights 

30  for  sums  such  as  he  never  ventured  to  ask.  To  give  a 
single  instance,  Robertson  received  four  thousand  five  hun- 
dred pounds  for  the  "History  of  Charles  V.";  and  it  is 
no  disrespect  to  the  memory  of  Robertson  to  say  that  the 
"  History  of  Charles  V."  is  both  a  less  valuable  and  a  less 

35  amusing  book  than  the  "  Lives  of  the  Poets." 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  41 

50.  Johnson  was  now  in  his  seventy-second  year  The 
infirmities  of  age  were  coming  fast  upon  him.  That  in- 
evitable event  of  which  he  never  thought  without  horror 
was  brought  near  to  him;  and  his  whole  life  was  darkened 
by  the  shadow  of  death.  He  had  often  to  pay  the  cruel  5 
price  of  longgvity.  Every  year  he  lost  what  could  never 
be  replaced.  The  strange  dependents  to  whom  he  had 
given  shelter,  and  to  whom,  in  spite  of  their  faults,  he 
was  strongly  attached  by  habit,  dropped  off  one  by  one; 
and,  in  the  silence  of  his  home,  he  regretted  even  the  10 
noise  of  their  scolding  matches.  The  kind  and  generous 
Thrale  was  no  more;  and  it  would  have  been  well  if  his 
wife  had  been  laid  beside  him.  But  she  survived  to  be 
the  laughing-stock  of  those  who  had  envied  her,  and  to 
draw  from  the  eyes  of  the  old  man  who  had  loved  her  be-  15 
yond  anything  in  the  world  tears  far  more  bitter  than  he 
would  have  shed  over  her  grave.  With  some  estimable 
and  many  agreeable  qualities,  she  was  not  made  to  be  inde- 
pendent. The  control  of  a  mind  more  steadfast  than  her 
own  was  necessary  to  her  respectability.  While  she  was  20 
restrained  by  her  husband,  a  man  of  sense  and  firmness, 
indulgent  to  her  taste  in  trifles,  but  always  the  undisputed 
master  of  his  house,  her  worst  offences  had  been  imperti- 
nent jokes,  white  lies,  and  short  fits  of  pettishness  ending 
in  sunny  good  humour.  But  he  was  gone;  and  she  was  2/> 
left  an  opulent  widow  of  forty,  with  strong  sensibility, 
volatile  fancy,  and  slender  judgment.  She  soon  fell  in 
love  with  a  music-master  from  Brescia,  in  whom  nobody 
but  herself  could  discover  anything  to  admire.  Her  pride, 
and  perhaps  some  better  feelings,  struggled  hard  against  30 
this  degrading  passion.  But  the  struggle  irritated  her 
nerves,  soured  her  temper,  and  at  length  endangered  her 
health.  Conscious  that  her  choice  was  one  which  Johnson 
could  not  approve,  she  became  desirous  to  escape  from  his 
inspection.  Her  manner  towards  him  changed.  She  was  35 


42  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

sometimes  cold  and  sometimes  petulant.  She  did  not  con- 
ceal her  joy  when  he  left  Streatham;  she  never  pressed 
him  to  return;  and,  if  he  came  unbidden,  she  received 
him  in  a  manner  which  convinced  him  that  he  was  no 
5  longer  a  welcome  guest.  He  took  the  very  intelligible 
hints  which  she  gave.  He  read,  for  the  last  time,  a  chapter  of 
the  Greek  Testament  in  the  library  which  had  been  formed 
by  himself.  In  a  solemn  and  tender  prayer  he  commended 
the  house  and  its  inmates  to  the  Divine  protection,  and, 

10  with  emotions  which  choked  his  voice  and  convulsed  his 
powerful  frame,  left  for  ever  that  beloved  home  for  the 
gloomy  and  desolate  house  behind  Fleet  Street,  where  the 
few  and  evil  days  which  still  remained  to  him  were  to  run 
out.  Here,  in  June,  1783,  ne  had  a  paralytic  stroke,  from 

15  which,  however,  he  recovered,  and  which  does  not  appear 
to  have  at  all  impaired  his  intellectual  faculties.  But 
other  maladies  came  thick  upon  him.  His  asthma  tor- 
mented him  day  and  night.  Dropsical  symptoms  made 
their  appearance.  While  sinking  under  a  complication  of 

20  diseases,  he  heard  that  the  woman  whose  friendship  had 
been  the  chief  happiness  of  sixteen  years  of  his  life  had 
married  an  Italian  fiddler;  that  all  London  was  crying 
shame  upon  her;  and  that  the  newspapers  and  magazines 
were  filled  with  allusions  to  the  Ephesian  matron,  and  the 

25  two  pictures  in  "Hamlet."  He  vehemently  said  that  he 
would  try  to  forget  her  existence.  He  never  uttered  her 
name.  Every  memorial  of  her  which  met  his  eye  he  flung 
into  the  fire.  She  meanwhile  fled  from  the  laughter  and 
the  hisses  of  her  countrymen  and  countrywomen  to  a  land 

30  where  she  was  unknown,  hastened  across  Mount  Cenis, 
and  learned,  while  passing  a  merry  Christmas  of  concerts 
and  lemonade  parties  at  Milan,  that  the  great  man  with 
whose  name  hers  is  inseparably  associated  had  ceased  to 
exist. 

35      51.  He  had,  in  spite  of  much  mental  and  much  bodily 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  43 

affliction,  clung  vehemently  to  life.  The  feeling  described 
in  that  fine  but  gloomy  paper  which  closes  the  series  of  his 
Idlers  seemed  to  grow  stronger  in  him  as  his  last  hour  drew 
near.  He  fancied  that  he  should  be  able  to  draw  his  breath 
more  easily  in  a  southern  climate,  and  would  probably  have  5 
set  out  for  Rome  and  Naples,  but  for  his  fear  of  the  expense 
of  the  journey.  That  expense,  indeed,  he  had  the  means 
of  defraying;  for  he  had  laid  up  about  two  thousand 
pounds,  the  fruit  of  labours  which  had  made  the  fortune 
of  several  publishers.  But  he  was  unwilling  to  break  in  10 
upon  this  hoard ;  and  he  seems  to  have  wished  even  to  keep 
its  existence  a  secret.  Some  of  his  friends  hoped  that  the 
government  might  be  induced  to  increase  his  pension  to 
six  hundred  pounds  a  year;  but  this  hope  was  disappointed ; 
and  he  resolved  to  stand  one  English  winter  more.  That  15 
winter  was  his  last.  His  legs  grew  weaker;  his  breath 
grew  shorter;  the  fatal  water  gathered  fast,  in  spite  of 
incisions  which  he,  courageous  against  pain,  but  timid 
against  death,  urged  his  surgeons  to  make  deeper  and 
deeper.  Though  the  tender  care  which  had  mitigated  his  20 
sufferings  during  months  of  sickness  at  Streatham  was 
withdrawn,  he  was  not  left  desolate.  The  ablest  physi- 
cians and  surgeons  attended  him,  and  refused  to  accept 
fees  from  him.  Burke  parted  from  him  with  deep  emo- 
tion. Windham  sate  much  in  the  sick-room,  arranged  the  25 
pillows,  and  sent  his  own  servant  to  watch  a  night  by  the 
bed.  Frances  Burney,  whom  the  old  man  had  cherished 
with  fatherly  kindness,  stood  weeping  at  the  door;  while 
Langton,  whose  piety  eminently  qualified  him  to  be  an 
adviser  and  comforter  at  such  a  time,  received  the  last  30 
pressure  of  his  friend's  hand  within.  When  at  length  the 
moment,  dreaded  through  so  many  years,  came  close,  the 
dark  cloud  passed  away  from  Johnson's  mind.  His  tem- 
per became  unusually  patient  and  gentle;  he  ceased  to 
think  with  terror  of  death,  and  of  that  which  lies  beyond  35 


44  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

death ;  and  he  spoke  much  of  the  mercy  of  God,  and  of 
the  propitiation  of  Christ.  In  this  serene  frame  of  mind 
he  died  on  the  13th  of  December,  1784.  He  was  laid, 
a  week  later,  in  Westminster  Abbey,  among  the  emi- 

5  nent  men  of  whom  he  had  been  the  historian, — Cowley 
and  Denham,  Dryden  and  Congreve,  Gay,  Prior,  and 
Addison. 

52.  Since  his  death  the   popularity  of  his  works — the 
"Lives  of   the   Poets,"   and,   perhaps,   the   "Vanity  of 

10  Human  Wishes,"  excepted — has  greatly  diminished.  His 
"  Dictionary  "  has  been  altered  by  editors  till  it  can  scarcely 
be  called  his.  An  allusion  to  his  Rambler  or  his  Idler  is 
not  readily  apprehended  in  literary  circles.  The  fame  even 
of  "Rasselas"  has  grown  somewhat  dim.  But,  though 

15  the  celebrity  of  the  writings  may  have  declined,  the  ce- 
lebrity of  the  writer,  strange  to  say,  is  as  great  as  ever. 
Boswell's  book  has  done  for  him  more  than  the  best  of  his 
own  books  could  do.  The  memory  of  other  authors  is 
kept  alive  by  their  works.  But  the  memory  of  Johnson 

20  keeps  many  of  his  works  alive.  The  old  philosopher  is 
still  among  us  in  the  brown  coat  with  the  metal  buttons 
and  the  shirt  which  ought  to  be  at  wash,  blinking,  putting, 
rolling  his  head,  drumming  with  his  fingers,  tearing  his 
meat  like  a  tiger,  and  swallowing  his  tea  in  oceans.  No 

25  human  being  who  has  been  more  than  seventy  years  in  the 
grave  is  so  well  known  to  us.  And  it  is  but  just  to  say 
that  our  intimate  acquaintance  with  what  he  would  him- 
self have  called  the  anfractuosities  of  his  intellect  and  of 
his  temper  serves  only  to  strengthen  our  conviction  that  he 

30  was  both  a  great  and  a  good  man.   • 


EXPLANATORY    NOTES 


LIFE  OP  SAMUEL  JOHNSON. 

1  1 .  Eminent  English  writers  of  the  eighteenth  century.  See 
Chronological  Table. 

1  4.  Liehfield.  A  clear  idea  of  geographical  relations  is  indis- 
pensable to  an  intelligent  grasp  of  literary  history  ;  the  student, 
therefore,  should  keep  a  map  near  him,  and  fix.  in  inind  the 
location  of  the  places  associated  with  important  persons  and 
events. 

1  11.  Churchman.  A  member  of  the  Established  Church  of 
England  as  distinguished  from  Nonconformists  or  Dissenters, 
i.e.,  the  Presbyterians,  the  Cougregationalists,  the  Baptists,  etc. 
For  the  struggle  between  religious  parties  in  England,  which  is  a 
long  story,  beginning  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  at  the  time  of 
the  Reformation  in  Germany,  see  histories  of  England. 

113.  The  sovereigns  in  possession  were,  first,  William  and  Mary, 
who  ascended  the  throne  at  the  Revolution  of  1688,  which 
dethroned  James  IT. ;  and,  afterwards,  Anne,'  who  succeeded 
William  and  Mary  in  1702.  Some  acquaintance  with  the  political 
history  of  this  period,  which  may  be  gained  from  any  history  of 
England,  is  necessary  to  a  full  understanding  of  the  life  of 
Johnson. 

1  14.  Jacobite.  Prom  "  Jacobus,"  the  Latin  form  of  "James." 
An  adherent  of  James  II.  after  he  was  deposed,  or  of  his  son 
James  Edward,  the  "Old  Pretender";  or  of  his  grandson 
Charles  Edward,  the  "Young  Pretender"  ;  hence,  an  opposer  of 
the  Revolution  of  1688. 

1  15.  A  picture  of  Johnson's  birthplace  may  be  seen  in  G. 
Birkbeck  Hill's  edition  of  Boswelfs  Johnson. 

1  26.   The  royal   touch.      It   is   a   very   old    superstition   that 


46  EXPLANA  TOR  Y  NO  TES 

scrofula  can  be  cured  by  a  touch  of  the  sovereign's  hand ;  hence, 
the  disease  is  popularly  called  "the  king's  evil."  See  Macbeth, 
IV.,  lii.,  and  Addison's  account  of  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley's  visit 
to  Westminster  Abbey  (Lowell's  edition,  in  this  series,  p.  146). 
Queen  Anne  was  the  last  English  sovereign  to  touch  for  "the 
evil."  For  more  information  on  the  subject,  see  Chambers's  Book 
of  Days,  vol.  i.,  pp..  82-85. 

2  5.  Her  hand  was  applied  in  vain.  Perhaps  the  father  ac- 
counted for  the  failure,  as  did  many  Jacobites  on  similar  occa- 
sions, by  the  reflection  that  Mary,  William,  and  Anne  were 
"  usurpers,"  and  therefore  could  not  be  expected  to  have  inher- 
ited a  power  which  came  only  with  "  divine  right"  ! 

2  11.  A  picture  of  the  Grammar  School  at  Lichfield,  which 
was  attended  by  Johnson,  Garrick,  and  Addison,  is  shown  iu 
Hill's  edition  of  BosweWs  Johnson. 

2  22.  Attic.  Attica  was  the  district  of  Greece  in  which 
Athens  was  the  principal  city. 

2  26.  Augustan  delicacy  of  taste.  The  reign  of  Augustus 
Caesar  (B.C.  27-A.D.  14)  was  the  golden  age  of  Roman  literature 
and  art. 

2  27.  The  great  public  schools  of  England  are  Winchester, 
Eton,  Harrow,  Rugby,  Westminster,  Charterhouse,  Shrewsbury, 
St.  Paul's,  and  Merchant  Taylors',  which  are  supported,  not  by 
taxation,  like  the  free  "public  schools"  of  America,  but  by 
endowments  and  the  tuition  of  pay  scholars. 

2  31.  The  great  restorers  of  learning.  During  the  "Dark 
Ages  "  (A.D.  600-1200),  the  civilization  which  Rome  had  spread 
over  Europe  decayed,  and  European  society  fell  back  into  a 
state  of  semi-barbarism.  The  term  "Revival  of  Learning"  is 
usually  applied  to  the  special  outburst  of  enthusiasm  for  Greek 
and  Latin  literature  and  art  which  originated  with  Italian  schol- 
ars in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  and  which  is  more 
properly  called  the  "Renaissance."  Foremost  among  the 
restorers  of  learning  were  Petrarch,  Boccaccio,  and  Politian 
(Italy),  Erasmus  (Holland),  Casaubon  (France),  and  Sir  Thomas 
More  (England). 

2  33.  Petrarch.  The  greatest  lyric  poet  of  Italy  (1304-1374), 
and  an  ardent  scholar.  He  wrote  both  in  Latin  and  in  Italian, 
himself  prizing  most  his  Latin  works  ;  but  he  is  now  more 


47 

famous  for  his  beautiful  Italian  lyrics.  Seo  Byron's  Childe  Harold, 
canto  iv.,  stanzas  30-34  (lines  262-306). 

3  10.  England  has  five  universities:  two  ancient,  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  ;  and  three  modern,  London  (1836),  Durham  (1837), 
and  the  Victoria  University  (1880). 

313.  Pe-mbrolce  College.  One  of  the  twenty  colleges  that  com- 
pose the  University  of  Oxford.  For  an  account  of  the  English 
universities  see  the  encyclopaedias  under  "University,"  "Ox- 
ford," and  "Cambridge." 

3  20.  Macrobius.     An  obscure  Latin  author  (circa  400  A.D.). 

3  27.  Christ  Church.  One  of  the  most  fashionable  of  the 
Oxford  colleges. 

3  32.    Gentleman  commoner.     One  who  pays  for  his  commons, 
i.e.,  a  student  who  is  not  dependent  on  any  foundation  for  sup- 
port, but  pays  all  the  university  charges  ;  corresponding,  in  sonic 
American  schools,  to  a  "pay  scholar"  as  distinguished  from  one 
on  a  scholarship. 

4  8.  Pope's  "Messiah."     Pope's  place  in  English  literature  is 
so   important  that  the  details  of  his  life  and  work  should  be 
looked  up  in  the  encyclopaedias  or  the  histories  of  English  litera- 
ture.    A  good  short  biography  will  be  found  in   the   English 
Men  of  Letters  Series.     No  poet  except  Shakespeare  is  oftener 
quoted.     The  Messiah  was  originally  contributed  to  the  Spectator. 

6  11.  Usher  of  a  grammar  school  in  Leicestershire.  In  Great 
Britain,  "grammar  schools"  are  those  in  which  Latin  and 
Greek  are  taught  as  the  principal  subjects  of  instruction.  In 
their  curricula  they  do  not  differ  from  the  "  public "  schools. 
See  note  to  2  27.  "Usher"  means,  of  course,  an  "assistant 
master." 

6  19.  Politian  (1454-1494).  The  friend  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici 
(the  great  patron  of  Italian  learning),  and  one  of  the  leaders  of 
the  Italian  Renaissance.  See  note  to  2  31. 

6  24.  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Porter  was  twenty  years  older  than 
Johnson. 

6  29.  The  Queensherrys  and  Lepels.  English  families  of  high 
rank. 

6  33.    Titty.     A  nickname  for  "Elizabeth." 

7  22.  David  Garrick.     One  of  the  greatest  of  English  actors, 
equally  at  home  in  tragedy  and  comedy.     Garrick  was  so  promi- 


48  EXPLANA  TOR  Y  NO TES 

nent  in  the  life  and  literature  of  the  eighteenth  century  that  the 
details  of  his  career  should  be  looked  up  in  an  encyclopaedia. 
See  also  Goldsmith's  poein  Retaliation,  which  contains  a  sketch 
of  Garrick's  character. 

7  33.  In  the  preceding  generation.  Addison,  for  example. 

8  5.  Several    writers    of    the    nineteenth    century,    etc.       For 
instance,    Byron,    Scott,    George  Eliot,   and   Macaulay   himself. 
See  Introduction. 

8  12.  See  note  to  4  8. 

817.  Thomson.  James  Thomson,  an  English  poet  (1700-1748), 
whose  fame  rests  on  his  Seasons,  The  Castle  of  Indolence,  and  A1'/// 
Britannia,  which  are  worth  the  student's  attention. 

8  18.  Fielding.  Henry  Fielding  (1707-1754),  the  first  great 
English  novelist.  His  important  novels  were  Joseph  Amlt-ar*. 
Jonathan  Wild,  Tom  Jones,  and  Amelia.  A  charming  short  sketch 
of  Fielding's  life  is  to  be  found  in  Thackeray's  English  Uvmor- 
ists. 

8  20.  The  Beggar's  Opera,  by  John  Gay,  had  a  run  of  sixty- 
three  nights,  and  by  its  success  banished  from  the  stage  for  a 
time  the  Italian  opera,  which  it  ridiculed. 

8  29.  A  porter's  knot.     A  pad  for  supporting  burdens  on  the 
head. 

9  9.  Drury  Lane.     A  street  in  the  heart  of  London,  running 
north  and  south  about  midway  between  Charing  Cross  and  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral.    In  the  time  of  the  Stuarts  it  was  an  aristocratic 
part  of  the  city,  but  about  Johnson's  time  its  respectability  began 
to  wane. 

9  21.  Alamode  beefshops.     "  Alamode  beef"  was  "scraps  and 
remainders  of  beef  boiled   down  into  a  thick  soup  or  stew."- 
Murray's  Dictionary. 

10  1.    Osborne.     "It  has  been  confidently  related,  with  many 
embellishments,  that  Johnson  one  day  knocked  Osborne  down  in 
his  shop,  with  a  folio,  and  put  his  foot  upon  his  neck.     The 
simple  truth  I  had  from  Johnson  himself.      '  Sir,  he  was  imperti- 
nent to  me,  and  I  beat  him.     But  it  was  not  in  his  shop  :  it  was 
in  my  own  chamber.'  " — Boswell. 

"  There  is  nothing  to  tell,  dearest  lady,  but  that  he  was  inso- 
lent and  I  beat  him,  and  that  he  was  a  blockhead  and  told  of  it, 


LIFE  OP  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  49 

which  I  should  never  have  done.  ...  I  have  beat  mauy  a 
fellow,  but  the  rest  had  the  wit  to  hold  their  tongues." — Piozzi's 
Anecdotes  of  Johnson. 

10  4.*  The  Harleian  Library.  The  famous  library  collected  by 
Robert  Harley,  First  Earl  of  Oxford  (1661-1724),  and  afterwards 
bought  by  Osborne.  The  books  were  described  in  a  printed 
catalogue  of  four  volumes,  part  of  which  was  made  by  Johnson. 

10  13.  It  icas  not  then  safe,  etc.  For  the  reason  see  Macaulay's 
History  of  England,  chapter  iii.,  the  paragraph  beginning,  "No 
part  of  the  load  which  the  old  mails  carried  out  was  more  im- 
portant than  the  newsletters."  For  a  discussion  of  the  relation 
of  the  Publicity  of  Parliaments  to  Liberty  see  Lieber's  Civil 
Liberty  and  Self-Government,  chapter  xiii. 

10  17.  Lilliput.  The  land  of  the  pygmies  described  in  Swift's 
Gulliver's  Travels,  a  book  which  every  boy  should  read.  The 
names  Blefuscu,  Mildendo,  etc.,  occur  in  that  celebrated  classic. 

10  29.  Capulets  and  Montagues.  The  English  spelling  of  the 
names  of  the  Cappelletti  and  Montecchi,  two  noble  families  of 
Northern  Italy,  chiefly  memorable  for  the  legend  on  which 
Shakespeare  has  founded  his  play  of  Romeo  and  Juliet. 

10  30.  The  Blues  of  the  Roman  Circus  against  the  Greens.  In 
Roman  chariot  races  the  drivers  were  at  first  distinguished  by 
white  and  red  liveries.  Afterwards  two  additional  colors,  a  light 
green  and  a  cerulean  blue,  were  introduced.  In  course  of  time 
the  Romans,  like  modern  "sporting-men,"  devoted  their  lives 
and  fortunes  tp  the  color  which  they  espoused  ;  and  thus  were 
formed  certain  "  factions  of  the  circus,"  which  often  came  to 
blows  in  their  rivalry.  For  a  fuller  account  of  this  subject  see 
Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  chapter  xl. 

10  32.    The  Church.     The  Established  Church  of  England. 

10  35.  Sacheverell.     A   high   church    divine  (1672-1724)  who 
maintained  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance  to  the  king.     For  an 
account  of  his  prosecution  by  the  Whigs  see  histories  of  England. 

11  6.  Jacobitical.     See  note  to  1  14. 

11  9.   Tom  Tempest.     A  character  in  Johnson's  Idler  (No.  10). 

11  11.  Laud  (1573-1645),  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  prin- 
cipal adviser  of  Charles  I.  in  all  matters  relating  to  the  Church. 
He  was  of  the  opinion  that  "unity  cannot  long  continue  in  the 
Church  when  uniformity  is  shut  out  of  the  Church  door;"  and. 
4 


50  EX  PL  AN  A  TOR  Y  NO  TES 

when  he  came  into  ecclesiastical  power  he  attempted  to  enforce 
uniformity  of  worship  by  tyrannical  measures.  Laud  soon  became 
profoundly  hated  by  the  Parliamentarians,  and  was  finally  be- 
headed by  order  of  Parliament,  in  spite  of  the  intercession  of 
the  king.  For  an  account  of  his  character  and  work  see  Gardi- 
ner's Student's  History  of  England,  or  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica. 
See  also  Macau  lay's  Essay  on  Hallam. 

11  15.  Hampden.  A  statesman  of  the  time  of  Charles  I.,  famous 
for  his  resistance  to  the  demands  of  the  king  for  "ship-money." 
His  life  and  work  should  be  looked  up  in  detail. 

11  17.  Falkland  and  Clarendon.  Statesmen  of  the  time  of 
Charles  I.,  and  adherents  of  the  king. 

11  18.  Roundheads.  The  adherents  of  Parliament  in  the 
struggle  against  Charles  I.,  so  called  in  ridicule,  from  their 
fashion  of  wearing  their  hair  closely  cut.  The  Cavaliers,  their 
opponents,  wore  their  hair  in  long  ringlets. 

11  35.    The  Great  Rebellion.     The  rebellion  against  Charles  I. 
The  explanation  of  Johnson's  prejudice  against  the  Scotch  is  not 
so    simple   as   Mucaulay   suggests.      The   passage   in    Boswell's 
Johnson,  which  Macaulay  probably  had  in  mind,  is  as  follows  : 

"After  musing  for  some  time,  he  [Johnson]  said:  'I  wonder 
how  I  should  have  any  enemies,  for  I  do  harm  to  nobody. ' 
BOSWELL:  'In  the  first  place,  Sir,  you  will  be  pleased  to  recollect 
that  you  set  out  with  attacking  the  Scotch;  so  you  got  a  whole 
nation  for  your  enemies.'  JOHNSON:  'Why,  I  own  that  by  rny 
definition  of  oats  I  meant  to  vex  them.'  BOSWELL  :  '  Pray,  Sir, 
can  you  trace  the  cause  of  your  antipathy  to  the  Scotch  ? ' 
JOHNSON:  'I  cannot,  Sir.'  BOSWELL:  'Old  Mr.  Sheridan  says 
it  was  because  they  sold  Charles  the  First. '  JOHNSON:  'Then, 
Sir,  old  Mr.  Sheridan  has  found  out  a  very  good  reason! '"  The 
definition  of  oats  referred  to  was :  "A  grain  which  in  England  is 
generally  given  to  horses,  but  in  Scotland  supports  the  people." 

12  9.    The  opposition.     The   party  in   Parliament   opposed  to 
the  Ministry. 

12  14.  That  noble  poem  in  which  Juvenal  had  described,  etc. 
The  Third  Satire,  in  which  Juvenal  (A.D.  38-120)  tells  why  his 
friend  left  Rome  to  dwell  on  the  sea-coast.  Juvenal  is  known  to 
us  only  through  his  sixteen  Satires,  which  occupy  the  very  first 
rank  in  satirical  literature,  and  are  of  priceless  value  as  pictures 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  51 

of  Roman  life  in  his  day.  Dryden's  versions  of  five  of  the  satires 
are  admirable,  and  should  be  looked  up.  A  good  metrical  trans- 
lation is  Gifford's.  Pope's  imitations  of  Horace's  Satires  and 
Epistles  may  be  found  in  any  large  library.  Johnson's  London, 
imitating  Juvenal's  Third  Satire,  is  in  Hales's  Longer  English  Poems. 

13  14.  Pledged.    Pawned. 

13  29.  The  Hue  ribands  in  Saint  James's  Square.  The  rib- 
bons worn  by  members  of  the  Order  of  the  Garter.  St.  James's 
Square  contains  the  mansions  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  the  Earl 
of  Derby,  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  other  members  of  the 
aristocracy. 

13  22.  Psalmanazar,  a  French  adventurer,  won  fame  and 
money  by  pretending  to  be  a  native  of  Formosa. 

13  81.  Newgate.      Once     the     principal     prison    of    London. 
Among  famous  prisoners  confined  there  were  Daniel  Defoe,  Jack 
Sheppard,  and  Titus  Gates. 

14  7.    The  Piazza  of  Covent  Garden.     Originally  the  "  Convent 
Garden  "  of  the  monks  of  Westminster.     In  the  Coveut  Garden 
Piazzas,  now  nearly  all  cleared  away,  the  families  of  many  dis- 
tinguished persons  used  to  reside. 

14  26.    Grub  Street.      "The  name  of  a  street  in  London  much 
inhabited  by  writers  of  small  histories,  dictionaries,  and  tempo- 
rary poems  ;  whence  any  mean  production  is  called  Grub  Street. " 
— Johnson's  Dictionary. 

15  5.    Wai-burton.     William   Warburton    (1698-1779),    Bishop 
of   Gloucester,    a   celebrated    critic    and   controversialist.      For 
Johnson's  estimate  of  him  see  Johnson's  Life  of  Pope. 

15  15.    Chesterfield.      Chesterfield's  Letters  to   his  Son  is  still 
considered  a  classic.     Johnson  said  of  it,  ' '  Take  out  the.  immo- 
rality, and   it   should   be  put  into   the   hands  of  every   young 
gentleman." 

16  5.   The  "  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes"  is  in  both  Hales's  Longer 
English  Poems  and  Syle's  From  Milton  to  Tennyson.     The  passages 
referred  to  by  Macaulay  should  be  looked  up  and  compared  with 
the  passages  from  Juvenal's  Tenth  Satire.     See  note  on  12  14. 

16  29.  His  tragedy,  begun  many  years  before.  This  was  Irene 
(see  p.  7),  the  plot  of  which  concerns  the  unhappy  love  of 
Mahomet  the  Great,  first  emperor  of  the  Turks,  for  a  beautiful 
Greek  captive  named  Irene. 


52  EX  PLAN  A  TOR  Y  NO  TES 

16  32.   Goodman's  Fields.     Not  far  from  the  Tower  of  London. 

16  35.  Drury  Lane    Theatre.     One   of    the   oldest   and   most 
important  of  the  London  theatres,  first  opened  in  1674,  with  an 
address  by  Dryden  ;  several  times  rebuilt.     Here  Garrick,  Kean, 
the  Kembles,  and  Mrs.  Siddons  used  to  act.     For  Drury  Lane 
see  note  to  9  9. 

1 7  30.  He  had  not  the  slightest  notion  of  what  blank  verse  should 
be.     For  a  discussion  of  what  blank  verse  should  and  should  not 
be,  see  Lanier's  The  Science  of  English  Verse  (Scribner's),  Carson's 
Primer  of  English  Verse  (Ginn  and  Co.),  or  Gummere's  Handbook 
of  Poetics  (Ginn  and  Co.). 

18  G,  7.    The  Tatler.     The  Spectator.     The  former  was  a  peri- 
odical established  by  Richard  Steele  in  1709,  and  was  the  fore- 
runner of   English  literary  magazines.     It  ran  successfully  for 
nearly  two  years.     Two  months  after  the  last  number  of  the 
Tatler,  the  Spectator  appeared,   published  every  week  day,  and 
supported  chiefly  by  the  contributions  of  Addison,  assisted  by 
Steele.     The  Spectator  ran  with  great  success  until  1713,  when  it 
was  succeeded  by  the  Guardian,   the  last    periodical  on  which 
Addison  and  Steele  worked  together.     The  student  who  is  not 
familiar  with  the    Tatler  and  the   Spectator  should  make  their 
acquaintance  at  once.     For  an  interesting  account  of  the  Spec- 
tator and  the  Tatler,  see  the  Introduction  in  Dr.  Lowell's  edition  of 
the  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  papers  in  this  series.    For  a  fuller  account 
of  these  famous  periodicals,  see  Macaulay's  Essay  on  Addison,  or 
Courthope's  Life  of  Addison  in  the  English  Men  of  Letters  Series. 

18  21.  Richardson.  Samuel  Richardson  (1689-1761),  the 
famous  English  novelist  who  wrote  Pamela,  Clarissa  Harlowe,  and 
Sir  Charles  Grandison. 

18  23.  Young.  Edward  Young  (1681-1765),  an  English  poet, 
best  known  for  his  Night  Thoughts. 

Hartley.  David  Hartley  (1705-1757),  a  physician  and  psycholo- 
gist, a  friend  of  Warburton,  Young,  and  Bishop  Butler. 

18  24.  Bubb  Doddington.  "Indeed,  as  far  as  we  recollect, 
there  were  in  the  whole  House  of  Commons  only  two  men  of  dis- 
tinguished abilities  who  were  not  connected  with  the  govern- 
ment ;  and  those  two  men  stood  so  low  in  public  estimation, 
that  the  only  service  which  they  could  have  rendered  to  any 
government  would  have  been  to  oppose  it.  We  speak  of  Lord 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  53 

George  Sackville  and  Bubb  Doddington." — Macaulay's   Essay  on 
the  Earl  of  Chatham. 

18  29.  Prince  Frederic.  The  oldest  son  of  George  II.  and 
father  of  George  III. 

18  31.  Leicester  House.     Once  the  home  of  the  Sidneys  ;  in  the 
time  of  Johnson,  the  residence  of  the  Prince  of  Wales. 

19  24-28.   Sir  Roger,  Will  Wimble,  Will  Honeycomb,  etc.     Char- 
acters or  sketches  in  the  Spectator.     See,  for  instance,  the  charm- 
ing Nos.  5,  69,   106,  108,   159,  and  584.     All  the  papers  relating 
to  Sir  Roger  and  his   club  have  been  edited  by  Dr.  Lowell  for 
this  series. 

1930-33.  Squire  Bluster,  Mrs.  Busy,  etc.  Characters  or  sketches 
in  the  Rambler. 

20  9.   The  Gunnings.     Two  sisters,  Elizabeth  and  Maria,  cele- 
brated and  fashionable  beauties  of  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
ceutury.     Frequent  mention  of  them  is  made  by  Horace  Walpole 
iu  his  correspondence. 

20  10.  Lady  Mary.  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu  (1689- 
1762),  whose  beauty  and  wit  were  famous  throughout  England. 
When  her  husband  was  appointed  ambassador  to  Constantinople, 
she  accompanied  him,  and  wrote  from  the  East  her  Letters,  one 
of  the  most  delightful  books  in  our  language.  She  introduced 
into  Europe  the  practice  of  inoculation,  which  she  had  seen -in 
Turkey. 

20  12.    The  Monthly  Review.     Whig   in  politics  and  non-con- 
formist in  theology  ;  therefore  unfriendly  to  Johnson,  who  was 
a  Tory  and  a  Churchman.     Its  opponent  and  rival  was  the  Crit- 
ical Review,  which    was  supported  by  Smollett.  Johnson,    and 
Robertson. 

21  8.  This  famous  letter  is  as  follows  : 

To  THE  RIGHT  HONORABLE  THE  EARL,  OP  CHESTERFIELD. 

February  7,  1755. 
My  Lord, 

I  have  been  lately  informed  by  the  proprietor  of  the  World  that 
two  papers  in  which  my  Dictionary  is  recommended  to  the  pub- 
lic, were  written  by  your  Lordship.  To  be  so  distinguished  is 
an  honor  which,  being  very  little  accustomed  to  favors  from  the 
great,  I  know  not  well  how  to  receive,  or  in  what  terms  to 
acknowledge. 

When,  upon   some  slight  encouragement,  I  first  visited  your 


54  EXPLANA  TOR  Y  NO TES 

Lordship,  I  was  overpowered,  like  the  rest  of  mankind,  by  the 
enchantment  of  your  address  ;  nnd  could  not  forbear  to  wish 
that  I  might  boast  myself  le  vainqueur  du  vainqueur  de  la  terre — 
that  I  might  obtain  that  regard  for  which  I  saw  the  world  con- 
tending ;  but  I  found  my  attendance  so  little  encouraged  that 
neither  pride  nor  modesty  would  suffer  me  to  continue  it.  When 
I  had  once  addressed  your  lordship  in  public,  I  had  exhausted  all 
the  art  of  pleasing  which  a  retired  and  uucourtly  scholar  can 
possess.  I  have  done  all  that  I  could  ;  and  no  man  is  well 
pleased  to  have  his  all  neglected,  be  it  ever  so  little. 

Seven  years,  my  Lord,  have  now  passed,  since  I  waited  in  your 
outward  rooms  or  was  repulsed  from  your  door  ;  during  which 
time  I  have  been  pushing  on  my  work  through  difficulties  of 
which  it  is  useless  to  complain,  and  have  brought  it  at  last  to  the 
verge  of  publication  without  one  act  of  assistance,  one  word  of 
encouragement,  or  one  smile  of  favor.  Such  treatment  I  did  not 
expect,  for  I  never  had  a  patron  before. 

The  shepherd  in  Virgil  grew  at  last  acquainted  with  Love,  and 
found  him  a  native  of  the  rocks. 

Is  not  a  patron,  my  Lord,  one  who  looks  with  unconcern  on 
a  man  struggling  for  life  in  the  water,  and  when  he  has  readied 
ground  encumbers  him  with  help  ?  The  notice  which  you  have 
been  pleased  to  take  of  my  labors,  had  it  been  early,  had  been 
kind  ;  but  it  has  been  delayed  till  I  am  indifferent,  and  cannot 
enjoy  it  ;  till  I  am  solitary,  and  cannot  impart  it  ;  till  I  am 
known,  and  do  not  want  it.  I  hope  it  is  no  very  cynical  asperity 
not  to  confess  obligations  where  no  benefit  has  been  received,  or 
to  be  unwilling  that  the  public  should  consider  me  as  owing  that 
to  a  patron  which  Providence  has  enabled  me  to  do  for  myself. 

Having  carried  on  my  work  thus  far  with  so  little  obligation 
to  any  favorer  of  learning,  I  shall  not  be  disappointed  though  I 
should  conclude  it,  if  less  be  possible,  with  less  ;  for  I  have 
been  long  wakened  from  that  dream  of  hope  in  which  I  once 
boasted  myself  with  so  much  exultation,  my  Lord, 

Your  Lordship's  most  humble,  most  obedient  servant, 

SAM.  JOHNSON. 

21  15.  Home  Tooke.  John  Home,  an  eminent  English  politi- 
cian and  philologist,  whose  conversational  powers  rivalled  those 
of  Johnson.  See  Boswell's  Johnson,  1778.  The  passage  in  the 
Preface,  which  moved  Home  so  deeply,  is  often  quoted  as  a  speci- 
men of  Johnson's  best  style,  and  is  as  follows  : 

"In  this  work,  when  it  shall  be  found  that  much  is  omitted, 
let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  much  likewise  is  performed  ;  and 
though  no  book  was  ever  spared  out  of  tenderness  to  the  author, 
and  the  world  is  little  solicitous  to  know  whence  proceeded  the 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  55 

faults  of  that  which  it  condemns  ;  yet  it  may  gratify  curiosity  to 
inform  it  that  the  English  Dictionary  was  written  with  little  as- 
sistance of  the  learned,  and  without  any  patronage  of  the  great  ; 
not  in  the  soft  obscurities  of  retirement,  or  under  the  shelter  of 
academic  bowers,  but  amidst  inconvenience  and  distraction,  in 
sickness  and  in  sorrow.  It  may  repress  the  triumph  of  malig- 
nant criticism  to  observe,  that  if  our  language  is  not  here  fully 
displayed,  I  have  only  failed  in  an  attempt  which  no  human 
powers  have  hitherto  completed.  If  the  lexicons  of  ancient 
tongues,  now  immutably  fixed,  and  comprised  in  a  few  volumes, 
be  yet,  after  the  toil  of  successive  ages,  inadequate  and  delusive  ; 
if  the  aggregated  knowledge,  and  co-operating  diligence  of  the 
Italian  academicians,  did  not  secure  them  from  the  censure  of 
Beni  ;  if  the  embodied  critics  of  France,  when  fifty  years  had 
been  spent  upon  their  work,  were  obliged  to  change  its  economy, 
and  give  their  second  edition  another  form,  I  may  surely  be  con- 
tented without  the  praise  of  perfection,  which,  if  I  could  obtain, 
in  this  gloom  of  solitude,  what  could  it  avail  me  ?  I  have  pro- 
tracted my  work  till  most  of  those  whom  I  wished  to  please  hav-e 
sunk  into  the  grave,  and  success  and  miscarriage  are  empty 
sounds  :  I  therefore  dismiss  it  with  frigid  tranquillity,  having 
little  to  fear  or  hope  from  censure  or  from  praise." 

21  30.  Teutonic  language.  The  Teutonic  languages  are  those 
spoken  by  the  Teutonic  or  German  races,  i.e.,  German,  Dutch, 
English,  Danish,  Swedish,  etc.,  as  distinguished  from  the  Romance 
or  Latin  languages,  i.e.,  Italian,  Spanish,  French,  etc.  Much 
light  is  thrown  on  the  origin  and  meaning  of  English  words  by 
a  knowledge  of  kindred  words  in  the  other  languages  of  tho 
Teutonic  group. 

21  32.  Was  scarcely  a  Teutonic  language.  An  exaggerated 
reference  to  Johnson's  fondness  for  words  of  Latin  origin.  In 
the  Preface  to  the  Dictionary,  seventy-two  per  cent,  of  the  words 
are  of  old  English,  i.e.,  Teutonic  origin,  and  only  twenty-eight 
per  cent,  of  Latin  or  Greek  origin. 

21  33.  Junius  and  Skinner.  Francis  Junius  (1589-1678)  and 
Stephen  Skinner  (1623-1667),  were  scholars  who  devoted  them- 
selves to  the  study  of  the  Teutonic  languages.  How  lightly 
Johnson  took  his  etymological  labors  may  be  gathered  from  the 
following  anecdote  : 

"  Dr.  Adams  found  him  [Johnson]  one  day  busy  at  his  'Dic- 
tionary,' when  the  following  dialogue  ensued  : 

"ADAMS.  This  is  a  great  work,  Sir.  How  are  you  to  get  all 
the  etymologies  ? 


5fi  EXPLANATORY  NOTES 

"JOHNSON.  Why,  Sir,  here  is  a  Bhelf  with  Junius,  and  Skin- 
ner, and  others  ;  and  there  is  a  Welch  gentleman  who  has  pub- 
lished a  collection  of  Welch  proverbs,  who  will  help  me  with  the 
Welch. 

"ADAMS.  But,  Sir,  how  can  you  do  this  in  three  years  ? 

"  JOHNSON.  Sir,  I  have  no  doubt  that  I  can  do  it  in  three  years. 

"  ADAMS.  But  the  French  Academy,  which  consists  of  forty 
members,  took  forty  years  to  compile  their  dictionary. 

"JOHNSON.  Sir,  thus  it  is.  This  is  the  proportion.  Let  me 
see  ;  forty  times  forty  is  sixteen  hundred.  As  three  to  sixteen 
hundred,  so  is  the  proportion  of  an  Englishman  to  a  French- 
man."—Boswell's  Life,  1747. 

22  5.  Spunging-houses  were  victualling  houses  or  taverns, 
frequently  belonging  to  bailiffs,  where  persons  arrested  for  debt 
were  kept  by  a  bailiff  for  twenty-four  hours  before  being  lodged 
in  prison,  in  order  that  their  friends  might  have  an  opportunity 
of* settling  the  debt.  The  following  is  the  half-jocose  definition 
of  Johnson's  Dictionary:  "  Spunging-house,  a  house  to  which 
debtors  are  taken  before  commitment  to  prison,  where  the  bailiffs 
sponge  upon  them,  or  riot  at  their  cost." 

22  19.  Jenyns.     Soame   Jeuyns   (1704-1787).     Johnson  justly 
condemned  his  Inquiry  as  a  slight  and  shallow  attempt  to  solve 
one  of  the  most  difficult  of  moral  problems. 

23  4.  Rasselas.     The  History  of  Rasselas,   Prince  of  Abyssinia. 
Published  in  1759.     Frequently  reprinted  in  English,  and  trans- 
lated into  many  foreign  languages.     See  Bibliography. 

23  6.  Miss  Lydia  iMnguish.     A  character  in  Sheridan's  famous 
comedy,  The  Rivals.     Her  peculiarities  may  be  inferred  from  her 
name. 

24  4.  Bruce's  Travels.     James  Bruce  (1730-1804)  was  the  most 
celebrated  of  the  early  African  explorers. 

24  8.  Burke.  Edmund  Burke  (1729-1797),  orator  and  states- 
man, distinguished  above  all  the  men  of  his  times  for  eloquence 
and  political  foresight,  and  without  doubt  one  of  the  most  culti- 
vated men  of  the  eighteenth  century.  See  Professor  Cook's  edi- 
tion of  Burke's  Speech  on  Conciliation  with  America,  in  the  present 
series. 

24  9.  Mrs.  Lennox.  A  literary  woman  of  Johnson's  time. 
She  was  a  great  favorite  with  Johnson,  who  cited  her  in  his 
Dictionary,  and  gave  a  supper  in  her  honor  to  celebrate  the  pub- 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  57 

lication  of  her  first  book.  Much  interesting  information  about 
her  is  given  in  Boswell's  Johnson.  Mrs.  Sheridan.  The  mother 
of  the  dramatist  Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan.  See  note  on  23  6. 
She  was  something  of  an  author,  and  "a  most  agreeable  com- 
panion to  an  intellectual  mrtn."  Johnson  spent  many  pleasant 
hours  at  her  home. 

24  22.  The  poet  who  made  Hector  quote  Aristotle,  etc.  Shakes- 
peare. See  Troilus  and  Cressida,  Act  II.,  Sc.  ii.,  and  Winter's 
Tale,  Act  II.,  Sc.  i.,  and  Act  V.,  Sc.  ii.  Aristotle,  the  great  Greek 
philosopher,  lived  in  the  fourth  century  B.C.,  eight  hundred 
years  after  the  Trojan  War.  Hector,  the  great  hero  of  Troy. 

24  23.  Julio  Romano  was  an  Italian  painter  (1492-1546),  the 
most  gifted  of  Raphael's  pupils. 

25  3.   The  Lord  Privy   Seal.     The  Privy  Seal  is  appended  to 
British  documents  of  minor  importance  which  do  not  require  the 
Great  Seal.     The  officer  who  has  the  custody  of  the  seal  is  now 
called  the  Lord  Privy  Seal.     He  is  the  fifth  great  officer  of  state, 
and  has  generally  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet.     The  Lord  Privy  Seal 
referred  to  in  the  text  was  Lord"  Gower.     Johnson  once  said  to 
Boswell:   "You  know,  Sir,  Lord  Gower  forsook  the  old  Jacobite 
interest.     When  I  came  to  the  word  Renegado,  after  telling  that 
it  meant  'one  who  deserts  to  the   enemy,  a  revolter,' I  added, 
sometimes  we  say  a  Gower.     Thus  it  went  to  the  press ;  but  the 
printer  had  more  wit  than  I,  and  struck  it  out." — Boswell's  John- 
son, 1755. 

25  13.  Oxford  was  Incoming  loyal.  See  115,  6.  George  III., 
of  course,  belonged,  not  to  the  House  of  Stuart,  but  to  the  House 
of  Hanover. 

25  14,  15.  To  be  explained  by  lines  10-12. 

25  16.  Lord  Bute.  For  a  full  account  of  Bute,  see  Macaulay's 
Essay  on  the  Earl  of  Chatham. 

25  29.    The   printer's   devil.      The   youngest   apprentice   in   a 
printing  office,  who  runs  on  errands  and  does  dirty  work,  such 
as  washing  ink  from  rollers  and  type,  sweeping,  etc.     By  "fear- 
ing "  him,  Macaulay  means  dreading  the  call  for  more  copy  which 
the  ' '  devil "  would  bring  him. 

26  20.  A  ghost  which  haunted  a  house  in  Cock  Lane.     For  a  full 
account  of  "  Scratching  Fanny,  the  Cock  Lane  Ghost,"  and  the 
investigation  of  the  matter  by  Johnson,  see   Hill's   edition   of 


58  EXPLANA  TOR  Y  NO TES 

Boswell's  Johnson,  1763;  Hare's  Walks  in  London,  vol.  i.,  pp.  204 
flf. ;  Mr.  Lang's  book,  The  Cock  Lane  Ghost,  or  the  interesting  arti- 
cle in  Harper's  Magazine  (August,  1893).  Macaulay's  account  of 
the  affair  is  unjust  to  Johnson. 

26  28.    Churchill.     An  English  poet  and  satirist  (1731-1704), 
now  remembered  as  much  for  his  profligacy  as  for  his  poetry. 
Some  of  his  lines  on  the  Cock  Lane  Ghost  are  reprinted  in  Hare's 
Walks  in  London. 

27  10.  Polonius.     See  Shakespeare's  Hamlet. 

27  11.  Wilhelm  Meister.  The  hero  of  a  famous  novel  of  the 
same  name,  by  Goethe.  The  remarks  on  the  character  of  Hamlet, 
which  Macaulay  refers  to,  are  quoted  in  the  Introduction  to  Mr. 
Rolfe's  edition  of  Hamlet  (Harper). 

27  30.  Ben.     Ben  Jonson   (1574-1637),    next    to    his    friend 
Shakespeare,  the  greatest  dramatist  of  the  Elizabethan  age. 

28  2,  3.  JEschylus,  Euripides,  Sophocles.    The  three  great  tragic 
poets  of  Greece.     Of  their  two  hundred  and  fifty-eight  dramas, 
only  thirty-two  have  come  down  to  us.     The  chief  works  of 
jEschylus  (525^456  B.C.)  are  Prometheus  Bound  and  Agamennon; 
of  Sophocles  (495-405  B.C.),  (Edipus  Tyrannus,  (Edipus  Coloneus, 
and  Antigone;   of    Euripides   (485^06   B.C.),    Alcestis,    Electra, 
Iphigenia  in  Tauris,  Orestes,  BaccJiw,  and  Iphigenia  in  Aidis. 

28  5,  6.  Massdnger,  Ford,  Decker,  Webster,  Marlow,  Beaumont, 
or  Fletcher.  Dramatists  of  the  Elizabethan  Age,  contemporary 
with  Shakespeare. 

28  16.    The  Royal  Academy.     The  oldest  and  most  influential 
institution  in  London  connected  with  the  Fine  Arts,  founded  in 
1768.     Johnson  was  appointed  ' '  Professor  in  Ancient  Literature  " 
the  year  after  it  was  founded,  and  about  the  same  time  Goldsmith 
was  elected  "Professor  in  Ancient  History."     Of  this  appoint- 
ment, Goldsmith,  writing  to  his  brother  in  January,  1770,  said: 
"The  King  has  lately  been  pleased  to  make  me  Professor  of 
Ancient  History  in  a  Royal  Academy  of  Painting  which  he  has 
just  established,  but  there  is  no  salary  annexed,  and  I  took  it 
rather  as  a  compliment  to  the  institution  than  any  benefit  to 
myself.      Honors  to   one  in   my  situation   are  something   like 
ruffles  to  one  that  wants  a  shirt." 

29  31.    Goldsmith.     Oliver  Goldsmith  (1728-1774),  the  author 
of  the  finest  poem  (Tfa  Deserted  Village),  the  most  exquisite  novel 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  59 

(The  Vicar  of  Wakefield),  and  the  most  delightful  comedy  (She 
Stoops  to  Conquer)  of  the  period  to  which  he  belongs.  For  an 
excellent  short  account  of  him,  see  the  Introduction  to  Miss 
Jordan's  edition  of  The  Vicar  of  Wakefield  in  this  series,  or 
Macaulay's  Life  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica. 

29  32.  Reynolds.  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  (1723-1792),  the  first 
president  of  the  Royal  Academy,  and  generally  acknowledged  as 
the  head  of  the  English  school  of  painting  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. He  wrote  much  on  art,  and  contributed,  at  Johnson's 
request,  three  papers  to  the  Idler. 

29  34.  Gibbon.  Edward  Gibbon  (1737-1794),  author  of  the 
History  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  probably  the 
greatest  historical  work  ever  written  in  English.  Jones.  Sir 
William  Jones  (1746-1794),  a  great  Oriental  scholar,  the  founder 
and  first  president  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  "  for  investigating 
the  history,  antiquities,  arts,  sciences,  and  literature  of  Asia." 

31  2.  Wilkes.  John  Wilkes  (1727-1797),  a  man  of  bad  char- 
acter, prominent  in  the  politics  of  his  day,  and  notorious  chiefly 
for  prosecutions  brought  against  him  that  involved  the  liberty  of 
the  press.  A  full  account  of  him  will  be  found  in  Macaulay's 
Essay  on  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  or  in  Gardiner's  Student's  History 
of  England. 

31  4.    Whitfteld.     George  Whitfield  (1714-1770),  one   of  the 
founders  of  Methodism,  celebrated  for  the  power  of  his  preach- 
ing, which  was  usually  done  in  the  open  air.     He  made  seven 
missionary  journeys  to  America.     Some  interesting  information 
about  him  is  given  in  Benjamin  Franklin's  Autobiography. 

32  27.  Southward.     On  the  south  side  of  the  Thames.    Streat- 
ham  Common,  in  South  London. 

33  11.  Buck.     Dandy.      Maccaroni.     "The   word   is   derived 
from  the  Macaroni  club,  instituted  by  a  set  of  flashy  men  who  had 
travelled  in  Italy,  and  introduced  Italian  macaroni  at  Almack's 
subscription  table." — Brewer's   Handbook  of  Phrase  and  Fable. 
Cf.  the  familiar  phrase  in  "  Yankee  Doodle." 

34  10.    The  Mitre  Tavern.     A  tavern  in  Mitre  Court,  off  Fleet 
Street,  famous  for  its  literary  associations. 

35  25.  Lord  Mansfield  (1704-1793),  was  Chief-Justice  of   the 
King's  Bench. 

36  4.  Macpherson.    James  Macpherson,  or  McPherson   (1738- 


60  EXPLANATORY  NOTES 

1796),  -who  professed  to  have  found  in  the  Highlands  of  Scotland 
fragments  of  ancient  poetry  in  Gaelic,  "  translations "  of  which 
he  published  in  1 762  under  the  title,  Fingal,  an  Epic  Poem,  in  Six 
Books,  ~by  Ossian.  The  authenticity  of  this  work  was  doubted, 
and  critics  demanded  a  view  of  the  original  poems  ;  but  Mac- 
pherson  died  without  disclosing  the  originals  of  his  professed 
discoveries. 

36  28.  The  Kenricks,  Campbells,  MacNicols,  and  Hendersons. 
The  curious  student  will  be  interested  to  look  up  the  references 
to  these  critics  in  the  index  to  Hill's  edition  of  Boswell's  Life  of 
Johnson. 

36  35.  Maxime,  si  tu  vis,  etc.      "Most  earnestly  do  I  desire, 
if  you  are  willing,  to  measure  my  strength  with  you." 

37  12.  Bentley.   Richard  Bentley  (1662-1742),  an  English  critic 
and  famous  classical  scholar. 

37  28.   Taxation  no  Tyranny.     This  work  was  intended  as  an 
answer  to  Burke's  Speech  on  Conciliation  with  America. 

38  22.    Wilson.    Richard  Wilson  (1714-1782),  an  eminent  Eng- 
lish landscape  painter. 

38  30.    Cowley.     Abraham  Cowley  (1618-1667). 

38  35.    The  Restoration,.     The  restoration  (1660)  of  the  Stuart 
kings,  after  the  Commonwealth  and  the  Protectorates  of  Oliver 
Cromwell  and  his  son  Richard. 

39  6.   The  wits  of  Button.      Button  was  the  proprietor  of   a 
coffee  house  where  political   and  literary  wits  resorted   in  the 
early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.      Gibber.       Colley  Cibber 
(1671-1757),  a  second-rate   English  actor  and  playwright,  ap- 
pointed poet-laureate  in  1730.     See  Boswell's  Johnson. 

39  7.  Orrery.  The  fifth  earl  of  Orrery,  author  of  a  Life  of 
Swift.  See  Boswell's  Johnson. 

39  8.  Swift.  Jonathan  Swift  (1667-1745),  the  celebrated  wit 
and  satirist.  His  life  and  works  should  be  looked  up  in  detail. 
See  Johnson's  sketch  in  Lives  of  the  Poets. 

39  9.  Services  of  no  very  honourable  kind.  Savage  had  been  asso- 
ciated with  Pope  in  the  publication  of  the  Dunciad. 

39  19.   "  The  Lives  of  the  Poets."     See  Bibliography. 

40  17.  Halone.      Edmund   Malone  (1741-1812),  a   celebrated 
critic  and  commentator  on  Shakespeare. 

41  28.  A  music-master  from  Brescia.     His   name  was   Piozzi. 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  61 

This  attachment  was  not  so  "  degrading  "  as  Macaulay  makes  it 
seem.  See  the  brief  article  "  Piozzi"  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britan- 
nica.  For  a  picture  of  Mrs.  Thrale  (born  Hester  Lynch),  after- 
ward Mrs.  Piozzi,  see  Hogarth's  engraving,  "The  Lady's  Last 
Stake." 

42  8.  A  solemn  and  tender  prayer.  "Almighty  God,  Father 
of  all  mercy,  help  me  by  thy  grace,  that  I  may,  with  humble 
and  sincere  thankfulness,  remember  the  comforts  and  conven- 
iences which  I  have  enjoyed  at  this  place  ;  and  that  I  may  resign 
them  with  holy  submission,  equally  trusting  in  thy  protection 
when  thou  givest  and  when  thou  takest  away.  Have  mercy  upon 
me,  O  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  me.  To  thy  fatherly  protection, 
O  Lord,  I  commend  this  family.  Bless,  guide,  and  defend  them, 
that  they  may  so  pass  through  this  world,  as  finally  to  enjoy  thy 
everlasting  happiness,  for  Jesus  Christ's  sake,  Amen." — Boswell's 
Johnson. 

42  24.  The  Ephesian  matron.  A  character  in  a  Latin  story 
(by  Petronius),  who,  from  grief,  descended  with  the  corpse  of 
her  husband  into  the  vault  to  die,  and  there  fell  in  love  with  a 
soldier  sent  to  guard  the  dead.  The  whole  story  is  told  in  the 
last  section  of  the  last  chapter  of  Jeremy  Taylor's  Holy  Dying. 

42  25.    The  two  pictures.     See  Hamlet,  Act  HI.,  Sc.  iv.      For 
some  of  the  letters  that  passed  between  Johnson  and  Mrs.  Piozzi 
see  Scoone's  Four  Centuries  of  English  Letters. 

43  25.    Windham.     William  Windhain  (1750-1810),  Secretary 
for  War  in  Lord  Grenville's  ministry. 

43  27.  Frances  Bvrney,  afterward  Madame  D'Arblay  (1752- 
1840),  author  of  Evelina  and  Cecilia,  two  well-known  novels  of 
the  time.  See  Macaulay's  Essay  on  Madame  D'Arblay. 

43  29.  Langton.     See  page  30. 

The  first  aim  in  studying  this  piece  of  prose,  as  has  already  been 
said  (see  page  xxxvii.),  must  be  to  understand  what  Macaulay  has 
•written,  to  give  these  pages  of  his  so  careful  a  study  as  to  be 
able  to  explain  accurately  and  definitely  any  passage  in  it.  As 
an  aid  in  conducting  this  process  and  in  attaining  this  result — 
a  clear  understanding  of  the  text — the  preceding  Explanatory 
Notes  have  been  added.  They  are  intended  to  touch  briefly  on 
the  more  important  references  and  allusions  with  which  a  pupil 
may  be  unfamiliar.  But  it  is  the  pupil  that  must  extend  and 


63  EXPLANATORY  NOTES 

complete  the  work.  Much  has  been  passed  over  without  com- 
ment, from  a  conviction  that  it  is  wise  to  force  the  young  student 
to  depend  as  little  as  possible  on  notes,  and  as  much  as  possible 
on  his  own  efforts,  in  judging  what  information  he  really  needs, 
and  how  he  may  best  secure  it.  However  he  does  it,  the  pupil 
must  master  the  text  of  Macaulay's  Life  of  Johnson  as  thoroughly 
as  he  w.ould  the  text  of  Cicero's  Oration  against  Catiline.  The 
Life  is  prescribed  for  actual  study,  not  for  reading,  and  the 
student  must  not  leave  it  until  he  has  gone  through  it  word  by 
word,  allusion  by  allusion,  sentence  by  sentence.  He  must 
understand  exactly  what  Macaulay  meant.  That  does  not  neces- 
sarily imply  that  he  should  know  all  about  every  character  to 
whom  Macaulay  refers,  but  it  does  mean  that  he  should  know 
enough  about  the  subject  of  each  reference  to  understand  why 
it  was  made.  To  assist  the  pupil  in  testing  the  extent  and 
accuracy  of  this  preliminary  study,  the  following  questions  have 
been  prepared,  to  which  answers  will  not  be  found  in  the  pre- 
ceding Explanatory  Notes.  They  will  indicate  the  sort  of  under- 
standing of  the  text  that  the  pupil  must  in  some  way  attain.  A 
few  may  appear  trivial;  but  whoever  has  gone  conscientiously 
through  the  labor  of  preparing  boys  for  college  in  English  will 
realize  that  seemingly  trivial  questions  are  often  not  without 
value.  Simple  things  are  easily  overlooked. 

I  ^ 

SPECIMEN   QUESTIONS  ON  THE  TEXT  :  FOB  ORAL  REVIEW  on 

WRITTEN  EXAMINATION.  —  What  does  Macaulay  mean  by 
Augustan  delicacy  of  taste  (2  26)  ?  Is  Latin  taught  in  England 
in  a  way  to  which  we  are  not  accustomed  ?  Why  gown  (4  2)  ? 
Explain  refracted  (5  28),  registrar  (6  4),  ceruse  (6  31),  ordintirit* 
(9  21).  Define  sycophancy  (9  28).  Just  what  is  meant  by  parti 
(11  13)  ?  By  pilloried,  mangled  leith  the  shears,  whipped  at  the 
cart's  tail  (11  27)  ?  By  hack  (13  6)  ?  By  Jewish  rabbis  and  Chris- 
tian fathers  (13  23)  ?  WhypaZm  (16  8)  ?  Is  carcase  (16  17)  a  familiar 
word  ?  What  does  acidulated  mean  (1715)?  /Why  closet  (17  29)  ? 
What  is  a  turgid  style  (19  15)  ?  Comment  on  are  known  to  every- 
body (19  29).  What  is  the  difference  between  the  authority  of  a 
Dictator  and  that  of  a  Pope  (21  1,  2)  ?  What  is  a  fttia  (21  4)  ? 
What  is  the  derivation,  and  what  the  meaning,  of  lexicographer 
(21  18),  etymologist  (21  29)  ?  What  is  meant  by  sheets  (22  35)  ? 


LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  63 

By  epithet  (23  20)  ?  By  women  are  married  without  ever  being  seen 
(24  12)  ?  Define  adjured  (26  24).  To  what  language  does 
Pomposo  belong  (26  32)  ?  What  is  meant  by  happy  conjectural 
emendation  (27  15)  ?  By  period  (28  34)  ?  What  is  the  Southern 
Cross  (30  30)  ?  Explain  quarto  (31  32).  How  could  Johnson 
have  an  apartment  at  a  brewery  (32  26)  ?  What  is  a  squire  (34  32)  ? 
Explain  Celtic  (35  1).  Why  is  the  line  quoted  a  detestable  Latin 
hexameter  (36  34)  ?  Why  at  that  season  (38  28)  ?  What  is  meant 
by  poetasters  (39  3)  ?  Explain  the  reference  in  Gibber,  who  had 
mutilated  the  plays  of  two  generations  of  dramatists  (39  6,  7)  ?  What 
is  the  meaning,  and  what  the  derivation,  of  anfractuosities 
(44  28),  and  why  does  Macaulay  use  the  word  ?  \ 

Not  even  when  the  pupil  has  mastered  the  full  meaning  of  the 
text,  word  for  word,  and  sentence  for  sentence,  is  it  safe  to 
assume  that  he  has  Macaulay's  ideas  thoroughly  in  mind.  That 
must  be  made  certain  by  requiring  careful  summaries.  The 
pupil  should  reduce  the  thought  of  each  paragraph  to  a  single 
sentence,  should  determine  what  are  the  main  ideas  of  the  whole 
composition,  and  then  make  a  scheme  of  the  structure.  Such  a 
plan  from  Macaulay's  Essay  on  Milton  is  here  reprinted  '  as  a 
good  example  of  what  a  thoughtful  analysis  of  a  similar  piece  of 
writing  should  show. 

§§  1-8.  PREFATORY  REMARKS.  Description  of  a  theological 
work  by  John  Milton,  lately  discovered. 

§§  8-49.  FIRST  DIVISION  OP  THE  ESSAY  :  MILTON'S  POETRY. 

§§  8-18.  First  topic  :  Is  Milton's  place  among  the  greatest  mas- 
ters ?  Yes,  for  he  triumphed  over  the  difficulty  of  writing  poetry 
in  the  midst  of  a  highly  civilized  society.  A  discussion  of  the 
relation  of  poetry  to  civilization. 

§§  18-20.  Second  topic  :  Milton's  Latin  poetry. 

§§  20-25.  Third  topic  :  Some  striking  characteristics  of  Mil- 
ton's poetic  methods.  A  description  of  the  effect  produced  by  the 
peculiar  suggestiveness  of  the  words  he  uses.  Examples,  L1  Alle- 
gro and  11  Penseroso. 

§§  25-30.  Fourth  topic  :  Milton's  dramatic  poetry.     Like  the 

1  From  Mr.  Croswell's  editiou  of  Macaulay's  Essay  on  Milton,  in 
this  series. 


64  EXPLANATORY  NOTES 

Greek  drama,  it  has  much  of  the  lyric  character.  The  Greek 
drama  and  Samson  Agonistes  ;  Comus  and  the  Italian  Masques. 

§§  30-47.  Fifth  topic  :  Paradise  Lost.  Parallel  between  Mil- 
ton and  Dante.  A  discussion  of  Milton's  superiority  in  the  man- 
agement of  the  agency  of  supernatural  beings. 

§§  47-49.  Sixth  topic  :  The  sonnets. 

§§  49-87.  SECOND  DIVISION  OF  THE  ESSAY  :  MILTON'S  CONDUCT 
AS  A  CITIZEN.  THE  CONDUCT  OF  HIS  PARTY  ASSOCIATES.  §§  49- 
72.  First  topic  :  Milton's  joining  the  party  of  the  Parliament  in 
1642.  §§  49-51.  Under  the  impressions  derived  from  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  century  literature,  many  Englishmen  fail  to  see 
that  the  Long  Parliament  was  defending  principles  of  govern- 
ment accepted  by  all  England  since  1688,  and  now  struggling 
for  recognition  in  the  rest  of  the  world.  §§  51-57.  The  rebellion 
of  Parliament  against  Charles  I.  is  therefore  justified  by  a  com- 
parison, point  by  point,  with  the  glorious  Revolution  dethroning 
James  II.  §§  57-72.  Admitting,  then,  the  justice  of  Parliament's 
quarrel  with  the  king,  was  their  rebellion  too  strong  a  measuiv  ? 
When  are  revolutions  justified  ? 

§§  72-78.  Second  topic  :  Milton's  association  with  the  Regi- 
cides and  Cromwell.  §§  72-75.  The  execution  of  Charles  not  so 
very  different  a  measure  from  the  deposition  of  James.  But  even 
if  one  disapproves  of  the  regicide,  one  may  admit  the  necessity  of 
defending  it  at  that  time.  §§  75-78.  Discussion  of  Cromwell's 
good  government  compared  with  Parliament's  betrayal  of  trust 
on  one  side  and  the  Stuart  misgovernment  on  the  other. 

§§  78-87.  Third  topic  :  Milton's  contemporaries*  classified  and 
described.  §§  79-84.  The  Puritans.  §  84.  The  Heathens.  §85. 
The  Royalists.  §  86.  Milton's  own  character  compounded  of 
many  different  strains. 

§§  87-92.  THIRD  DIVISION  OF  THE  ESSAY  :  MILTON'S  PROSE- 
WRITINGS.  His  pamphlets  devoted  to  the  emancipation  of  human 
thought. 

§§  92  to  End.     CONCLUSION.     A  vision  of  Milton. 

After  a  scheme  of  the  thought  has  been  made,  in  this  or  some 
other  fashion  equally  good,  the  pupil  should  write  a  number  of 
short  essays,  each  of  which  should  have  for  its  object  the  repro- 
duction in  the  pupil's  own  language,  and  on  a  smaller  scale,  of 
the  ideas  contained  in  one  of  the  large  divisions  of  the  Life. 


CRITICAL  NOTE 

UNDER  this  heading  are  gathered  certain  detailed  suggestions 
as  to  the  further  study  of  Macaulay's  Life  of  Johnson.  Up  to  this 
point  we  have  considered  only  a  single  part  of  our  work — that 
pertaining  to  the  understanding  of  the  text.  The  pupil  must 
not  stop  here,  however,  nor  slacken  his  efforts.  The  pleasantest 
part  of  his  task  remains  undone.  We  have  yet  to  see  (1)  what 
we  can  gain  from  a  study  of  Macaulay's  style,  (2)  what  we  can 
gain  by  considering  the  truth,  appropriateness,  or  suggestive- 
ness  of  Macaulay's  ideas,  and  (3)  what  progress  we  can  make, 
after  this  introduction  by  Macaulay,  in  the  study  of  Johnson's 
life  and  times  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  works  and  those  of 
his  contemporaries.  In  such  matters  teacher  and  pupils  must  be 
left  largely  to  their  o\vn  devices,  but  a  few  hints  may  seasonably 
be  given  under  the  successive  heads  of  Rhetorical  Study,  Sug- 
gestive Study,  and  Literary  Study. 

^Rhetorical  Study.  Rhetorical  work  in  the  preparatory  schools 
should  have  simply  the  aim  of  enabling  pupils  to  write  simply, 
clearly,  and  correctly.  Minute  precept,  the  philosophy  and  logic 
of  expression,  detailed  analysis  of  style — all  these  are  subjects 
for  college  work.  To  write  simply,  clearly,  and  correctly  is  all 
that  can  reasonably  be  asked  of  a  sub-Freshman.  Fluency, 
grace,  beauty,  power — all  these  may  be  inculcated  later.  Sim- 
plicity, clearness,  and  correctness  are  the  essential  qualities, 
and  no  one  is  a  better  teacher  of  them  than  Macaulay.  Fine 
critics  have  found  fault  with  his  style,  but  they  cannot  deny 
that  it  has  proved  the  most  successful  prose  style  of  the  century. 
Success  means  something.  To  receive  Avide  and  long  con- 
tinued approbation  a  style  must  have  the  very  best  of  qualities. 
Macaulay  is  an  excellent  model. 

The  student  has  two  things  to  do  if  he  would  get  the  most  out 
of  Afacaulay's  style,     First,  he  must  like  it  and  learn  the  "tune  " 
5 


66  CRITICAL  NOTE 

of  it.  That  is  the  main  tiling.  He  should  pick  out  the  finest 
passages  in  the  Life,  read  them  aloud  again  and  again,  perhaps 
even  memorize  short  parts  of  them,  until  he  gets  the  "swing" 
of  the  style.  Then  he  should  choose  from  matters  familiar  to  him 
'a  subject  of  the  sort  that.  Macaulay  liked,1  and  try  to  treat  it 
after  the  Macaulay  fashioli,  leading  his  essay  aloud  with  em- 
phatic vigor  to  see  if  it  has  the  proper  ring.  The  process  of  imi- 
tation leads  inevitably  to  analysis.  Ju€t  how  does  Macaulay 
secure  his  results  ?  he  must  ask  himself,  and  that  means  that  he 
and  his  classmates  must  go  systematically  to  work  to  analyze 
Macaulay's  style.  The  task  is  not  a  hard  one.  Long  paragraphs, 
short  sentences,  balanced  or  parallel  structure  in  sentences  and 
paragraphs,  a  wide  vocabulary  of  dignified  and  picturesque 
words — this  is  what  his  instructor  will  help  him  to  find,  and, 
having  found  the  secret  of  the  method,  he  will  go  on  to  apply  it. 
He  will  choose  particular  typical  sentences  of  Macaulay's  and 
match  them  with  similarly  constructed  sentences  of  his  own  on 
a  different  topic.  If  he  can  do  that  well,  he  has  learned  a  lesson 
that  will  long  stand  him  in  good  stead. 

Suggestive  Study.  It  will  be  disappointing  if  the  pupil  reads 
Macaulay  blindly,  or  imitates  him  blindly..  Macaulay  is  famous 
for  expressing  clearly  and  vigorously  ideas  worth  thinking  of. 
The  student  must  keep  his  mind  open  to  ideas,  full  of  curiosity. 
Not  only  will  he  be  impressed  by  the  main  point  of  the  essay — 
the  vivid  delineation  of  Johnson's  character,  not  only  will  he  be 
thrilled  witli  sympathy  and  admiration,  but  he  will  find  food 
for  reflection  on  almost  every  page.  Take  a  single  illustration 
from  the  very  first  paragraph.  "  That  Augustan  delicacy  of 
taste,"  says  Macaulay,  speaking  of  English  schoolboys.  "Clas- 
sical writers  who  were  quite  unknown  to  the  best  scholars  in  the 
sixth  form  at  Eton,"  he  continues.  Evidently  some  English  boys 
may  actually  have  a  delicate  taste  in  points  of  Latin  usage  at  an 
age  when  most  American  boys  are  thankful  if  they  can  stumble 
through  Virgil  or  Cicero.  Evidently  some  English  boys  have  really 
a  wide  range  of  Latin  literature  at  their  command.  What  makes 
the  difference  ?  Why  are  we  ignorant  where  they  are  wise  ? 
'Following  the  excellent  method  outlined  by  Mr.  E.  L.  Miller. 
See  the  Suggestions  to  Teachers  and  Students  in  his  edition  of 
Southey's  Life  of  Nelson  in  this  series. 


CRITICAL  NOTE  67 

Are  the  tables  turned  in  other  fields  of  knowledge  ?  What  is 
there  sound  and  good  in  our  own  education  ?  Such  chance  ques- 
tionings the  instructor  should  deliberately  encourage.  Few  boys 
know  how  to  keep  their  minds  active  as  they  read.  Even  sug- 
gestions so  random  as  those  just  indicated  with  regard  to  the 
English  system  of  classical  education  might  be  the  beginning, 
in  a  young  student's  mind,  of  an  exceedingly  profitable  train  of 
thought.  It  is  obviously  impossible,  however,  for  any  editor  to 
indicate  more  than  the  general  character  of  such  suggestive 
study.  The  whole  process  must  be  left,  for  the  most  part,  to  the 
pupil  himself,  who,  with  the  encouragement  of  the  instructor, 
should,  from  time  to  time,  try  to  sum  up,  not  Macaulay's  ideas, 
but  the  results  of  his  own  thinking  on  matters  which  his  study 
of  Macaulay  has  suggested. 

Literary  Study.  Valuable  as  the  two  kinds  of  training  just 
mentioned  are,  they  should  be  wholly  subordinate  to  the  study 
of  the  Life  as  an  introduction  to  a  wider  knowledge  and  enjoy- 
ment of  English  literature.  Luckily,  the  book  looks  two  ways, 
opening  an  easy  avenue  on  the  one  hand  to  Macaulay,  and  on 
the  other  to  Johnson.  Both  were  interesting  men,  and  both 
belonged  to  interesting  periods  of  literature.  To  which  author 
and  to  which  group  the  student  turns  his  attention,  it  makes 
little  difference.  The  main  thing  is  that  he  should  read — read 
with  zest,  and  read  with  appreciation.  But  here  also  the 
teacher  and  the  pupil  must  be  left  to  their  own  devices.  With 
interest  and  earnestness  one  cannot,  in  this  field,  go  far  astray — 
particularly  in  dealing  with  a  book  so  full  of  references  to  the 
best  known  literary  figures  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Even  if 
the  student  does  nothing  more  than  grow  familiar  with  Boswell's 
Johnson  and  some  of  Macaulay's  best  essays,  he  has  accomplished 
something  that  will  contribute  directly  and  in  no  small  degree 
towards  laying  the  foundations  of  a  liberal  education. 


LONGMANS'  ENGLISH  CLASSICS 

EDITED  BY 

GEORGE   RICE  CARPENTER,   A.B. 

Professor  of  Rhetoric  and  English  Composition  in  Columbia  University 


Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.'s  Publications. 


LONGMANS'  ENGLISH  CLASSICS. 

Edited  by  GEORGE  RICE  CARPENTER,  A.B.,  Professor  of  Rhetoric  and 
English  Composition  in  Columbia  University. 

PRESCRIBED  FOR  EXAMINATIONS  AS  NOTED  BELOW. 

New  volumes,  1905,  are  marked  by  a  *.  All  in  cloth  binding. 

Browning's  Select  Poems.* 

Edited,  with  Notes  and  an  Introduction,  by  PERCIVAL  CHUBB,  Direc- 
tor of  English,  Ethical  Culture  Schools,  New  York.     $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.] 

Bunyan's  Pilgrims  Progress.* 

Edited,  with  Notes  and  an  Introduction,  by  CHARLES  SEARS  BALD- 
WIN, Ph.D.,  Assistant  Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  Yale  University.  $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.] 

Burke's  Speech  on  Conciliation  with  America. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  ALBERT  S.   COOK,   Ph.D., 
L.H.D.,   Professor  of  the  English  Language  and  Literature  in  Yale 
University.      $0.40. 
[For  Study,  1905  to  1911.] 

Carlyle's  Essay  on  Burns. 

Edited,   with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  WILSON  FARRAND,  A.M., 
Associate  Principal  of  the  Newark  Academy,  Newark,  N.  J.     $0.40 
[For  Study,  1909  to  1911.] 

Carlyle's    Heroes,     Hero-worship,    and    the     Heroic    in 
History.* 

Edited,   with  Notes   and  an   Introduction,  by  HENRY  DAVID  GRAY, 
Ph.D.,  Instructor  in  English  in  the  University  of  Texas.     $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.] 

Coleridge's  The  Rime  of  the  Ancient  Mariner. 

Edited,    with    Introduction   and   Notes,  by   HERBERT    BATES,  A.B., 
Brooklyn  Manual  Training  High  School,  New  York.     $0.30. 
[For  Reading,  1905  to  1911.] 

Cooper's  The  Last  of  the  Mohicans. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  CHARLES  F.  RICHARDSON. 
Ph.D.,  Winkley  Professor  of  the  English  Language  and  Literature  in 
Dartmouth  College.  $0.50. 


Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.'s  Publications.  3 

Longmans'  English  Classics* — Continued. 
Defoe's  History  of  the  Plague  in  London. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  Professor  G.  R.  CARPENTER, 
of  Columbia  University.  $0.60. 

De  Quincey's  Flight  of  a  Tartar  Tribe. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  CHARLES  SEARS  BALDWIN, 
Ph.D.,  Assistant  Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  Yale  University.  $0.40. 

De  Quincey's  Joan  of  Arc  and  The  English  Mail  Coach.* 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  CHARLES  SEARS  BALDWIN, 
Ph.D.,  Assistant  Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  Yale  University.     $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.] 

Dryden's  Palamon  and  Arcite. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  WILLIAM  TENNEY  BREWSTER, 
A.M.,  Adjunct  Professor  of  English  in  Barnard  College,  Columbia 
University.  $0.40. 

George  Eliot's  Silas  Marner. 

Edited,  with    Introducfion   and  Notes,  by  ROBERT  HERRICK,   A.B., 
Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  the  University  of  Chicago.     $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1905  to  1911.] 

Franklin's  Autobiography.* 

Edited,   with  Notes  and  an  Introduction,   by  WILLIAM  B.   CAIRNS, 
Ph.D.,  Assistant  Professor  of  American  Literature  in  the  University 
of  Wisconsin.      $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.] 

GaskelPs  Cranford.* 

Edited,   with   Notes  and  an  Introduction,  by  FRANKLIN  T.   BAKER, 
A.M.,  Professor  of  the  English  Language  and  Literature  in  Teachers 
College,  Columbia  University.     $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.] 

Goldsmith's  The  Vicar  of  Wakefield. 

Edited,   with  Introduction  and  Notes,   by  MARY  A.  JORDAN,  A.M., 
Professor  of  Rhetoric  and  Old  English  in  Smith  College.     $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.] 

irving's  Life  of  Goldsmith. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  LEWIS  B.   SEMPLE,   M.A. , 
Ph.D.,    Instructor   in   English,   Brooklyn   Commercial    High    School, 
New  York.      $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1906,  1907,  1908.] 


4  Longmans,  Green,  <Sr  Co.'s  Publications. 

Longmans'  English  Classics. — Continued. 
Irving's  Tales  cf  a  Traveller. 

With  an  Introduction  by  BRANDER  MATTHEWS,  LL.D.,  Professor  of 
Dramatic  Literature  in  Columbia  University,  and  Explanatory  Notes 
by  the  General  Editor  of  the  series.  $0.80. 

Irving's  Sketch  Book.* 

With   an   Introduction   by  BRANDER    MATTHEWS,   LL.D.,  and  with 
Notes  by  ARMOUR  CALDWELL,  A.B.,  Lecturer  in  English  in  Columbia 
University.     $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.] 

Macaulay's  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome,  with  Ivry  and  The 
Armada.* 

Edited,  with  Notes  and  an  Introduction,  by  NOTT  FLINT,  Instructor 
in  English  in  the  University  of  Chicago.     $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.] 

Macaulay's  Essay  on  Milton. 

Edited  by  JAMES  GREKNI.EAF  CROSWELL,  A.B.,  Head-master  of  the 
Brearley  School,  New  York.  $0.40. 

Macaulay's  Essays  on  Milton  and  Addison. 

Edited  by  JAMES  GREENLEAF  CROSWELL,  A.B.,  Head-master  of  the 
Brearley  School,  New  York.  $0.40. 

Macaulay's  Johnson  and  Addison. 

1.  Life  of  Samuel  Johnson,  by  the  Reverend  HUBER  GRAY  BUEHLER, 
Head  Master  of  the  Hotchkiss  School,  Lakeville,  Conn. 

2.  Addison,  by  JAMES  GREENLEAF  CROSWELL,  Brearley  School.    $.40. 
[For  Study,  1906,  1907,  1908.] 

Macaulay's  Life  of  Samuel  Johnson. 

Edited,   with  Introduction   and   Notes,   by  HUBER  GRAY  BUEHLER, 
Head-master,  Hotchkiss  School,  Lakeville,  Conn.     $0.40. 
[For  Study,  1909  to  1911.] 

Milton's  L'AIlegro,  II  Penseroso,  Comus,  and  Lycidas. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  WILLIAM  P.  TRENT,  A.M., 
Professor  of  English  Literature  in  Columbia  University.      $0.40. 
[For  Study,  1906  to  1911.] 


Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.'s  Publications.  s 

Longmans'  English  Classics* — Continued. 
Milton's  Paradise  Lost.     Books  I.  and  II. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE, 
Jr.,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Rhetoric  and  Logic  in  Union  College.  $0.40. 

Pclgrave's  The  Golden  Treasury.* 

Edited,  with  Notes  and  an  Introduction,  by  HERBERT  BATES,  A.B., 
Instructor  in  English  in  the  Manual  Training  High  School,  Brooklyn, 
New  York  City.     $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.] 

Pope's  Homer's  Iliad.     Books  I.,  VI.,  XXII.  and  XXIV. 

Edited  by  WILLIAM  H.  MAXWELL,  Ph.D.,  Superintendent  of  City 
Schools,  New  York;  and  PERCIVAL  CHUBB,  Director  of  English  in 
the-Ethical  Culture  Schools,  New  York.  $0.40. 

Ruskin's  Sesame  and  Lilies.* 

Edited,  with  Notes  and  an  Introduction,  by  GERTRUDE  BUCK,  Ph.D., 
Associate  Professor  of  English  in  Vassar  College.     $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.] 

Scott's  I  van  hoe. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and   Notes,   by   BLISS   PERRY,  A.M.,  for- 
merly Professor  of  Oratory  and  ./Esthetic  Criticism  in  Princeton  Uni- 
versity.     $0.60. 
[For  Reading,  1906  to  1911.] 

Scott's  Lady  of  the  Lake. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  GEORGE  RICE  CARPENTER, 
Professor    of    Rhetoric   and    English  Composition    in  Columbia  Uni- 
versity.    $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1906  to  1911.] 

Scott's  Marmion. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  ROBERT  MORSS  LOVETT.  A.B., 
Assistant  Professor  of  English  in  the  University  of  Chicago.  $0.60. 

Scott's  Woodstock. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  BLISS  PERRY,  A.M.,  for- 
merly Professor  of  Oratory  and  ^Esthetic  Criticism  in  Princeton  Uni- 
versity. $0.60. 


6  Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.'s  Publications. 

Longmans'  English  Classics. — Continued. 
Shakspere's  A  Midsummer  Night's  Dream. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  GEORGE  PIERCE  BAKER, 
A.B. ,  Assistant  Professor  of  English  in  Harvard  University.  $0.50. 

The  introduction  is  especially  designed  to  shmv  the  pieturesgueness  of 
Shakspere's  time,  and  the  conditions  of  life  in  the  London  of  1600. 

Shakspere's  As  You  Like  It. 

With  an  Introduction  by  BARRETT  WENDELL,  A.B.,  Professor  of  Eng- 
lish in  Harvard  University;  and  Notes  by  WILLIAM  LYON  PHELPS, 
Ph.D.,  Lampson  Professor  of  English  Literature  in  Yale  University. 
$0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.] 

Shakspere's  Macbeth. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  JOHN  MATTHEWS  MANLY, 
Ph.D  ,  Professor  and  Head  of  the  Department  of  English  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago.     $0.40. 
[For  Study,  1905,  190910  1911.    For  Reading,  1906  to  1908.] 

Shakspere's  Julius  Caesar. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  GEORGE  C.  D.  ODELL,  Ph.  D. , 
Adjunct  Professor  of  English  in  Columbia  University.     $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.    For  Study,  1906  to  1908.] 

Shakspere's  King  Henry  V.* 

Edited,  with  Notes  and  an  Introduction,  by  GEORGE  C.  D.  ODELL, 
Ph.D.,  Adjunct  Professor  of  English  in  Columbia  University.  $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.] 

Shakspere's  The  Merchant  of  Venice. 

Edited,   with   Introduction   and    Notes,    by   FRANCIS   B.  GUMMERE, 
Ph.D.,  Professor  of  English  in  Haverford  College.     $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1906  to  1911.] 

Shakspere's  Twelfth  Night.* 

Edited,  with  Notes  and  an  Introduction,   by  JOHN  B.    HENNEMAN, 
Ph.D.,  Professor  of  English  in  the  University  of  the  South.     $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.] 


Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.'s  Publications. 


Longmans'  English  Classics.— Continued. 
Southey's  Life  of  Nelson. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  EDWIN  L.  MILLER,  A.M.,  of 
the  Englewood  High  School,  Illinois.  $0.60. 

Spenser's  The  Faerie  Queene.     (Selections.)* 

Edited,  with  Notes  and  an  Introduction,  by  JOHN  ERSKINE,  A.M., 
Professor  of  English  in  Amherst  College.     $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1909  to  1911.] 

Tennyson's  Uareth    and    Lynette,  Lancelot  and  Elaine, 
The  Passing  of  Arthur. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  SOPHIE  C.  HART,  Associate 
Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  Wellesley  College.     $0.^0. 
[For  Reading,  1906  to  1911.] 

Tennyson's  The  Princess. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  GEORGE  EDWARD  WOOD- 
BERRY,  A.  B.,  formerly  Professor  of  Comparative  Literature  in  Colum- 
bia University.  $0.40. 

The  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  Papers. 

From  "The  Spectator."     Edited  by  D.  O.  S.  LOWELL,  A.M.,  of  the 
Roxbury  Latin  School,  Roxbury,  Mass.     $0.40. 
[For  Reading,  1906  to  1911.] 

Webster's  First  Bunker  Hill  Oration  and  Washington's 
Farewell  Address.* 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  FRED  NEWTON  SCOTT,  Ph.D., 
Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  the  University  of  Michigan.     $0.40. 
[For  Study,  1909  to  1911.] 


Prof.  C.  B.  Bradley,  University 
of  California ;  Member  of  English 
Conference  of  the  National  Commit- 
tee of  Ten  :  —  "Admirably  adapted  to 
accomplish  what  you  intend — to  in- 
terest young  persons  in  thoughtful 
reading  of  noble  literature.  The 
help  given  seems  just  what  is  needed ; 
its  generosity  is  not  of  the  sort  to 
make  the  young  student  unable  to 
help  himself.  I  am  greatly  pleased 


with  the  plan  and  with  its  execu- 
tion." 

Byron  Groce,  Master  in  English, 
Boston  Latin  School: — "As a  series 
the  books  have  two  strong  points ; 
there  is  a  unity  of  method  in  editing 
that  I  have  seen  in  no  other  series : 
the  books  are  freer  from  objections 
in  regard  to  the  amount  and  kind  of 
editing  than  any  other  series  I 
know." 


LONGMANS'  ENGLISH  CLASSICS 


COMMENTS  ON  THE    SERIES 

"  It  is  the  most  attractive,  most  consistent,  most  practicable,  and  at  the 
same  time  most  scholarly  series  for  college  preparation  yet  produced." 
— Principal  GEORGE  H.  BROWNE,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

"  The  series  is  admirably  planned,  the  '  Suggestions  to  Teachers '  being 
a  peculiarly  valuable  feature."— Prof.  KATHERINE  LEE  BATES,  Wellesley 
College. 

"  The  introductions  and  notes  are  beyond  reproach,  and  the  binding 
and  typography  are  ideal.  The  American  school-boy  is  to  be  congratu- 
lated that  he  at  length  may  study  his  English  from  books  in  so  attractive  a 
dress."— GEORGE  N.  MCKNIGHT,  Instructor  in  English,  Cornell  University. 

"  It  is  the  best  edition  that  I  know  of.  The  editor  points  out  precisely 
the  things  that  a  class  should  observe ;  the  questions  are  searching  and  sug- 
gestive ;  the  notes  lucid  and  literary." — Prof.  MARTIN  W.  SAMPSON,  Univer- 
sity of  Indiana,  Blooming  urn,  Ind. 

"  The  Suggestions  for  Teachers  are  likely  to  be  of  great  value,  not 
only  because  many  teachers  need  assistance  in  such  work,  but  also  because 
they  must  tend  to  introduce  the  uniformity  of  method  that  is  hardly  less 
valuable  than  the  uniformity  of  the  courses  themselves." — The  Educational 
Review,  February,  1896. 

"  Admirably  adapted  to  accomplish  what  you  intend — to  interest  young 
persons  in  thoughtful  reading  of  noble  literature.  The  help  given  seems 
just  what  is  needed  ;  its  generosity  is  not  of  the  sort  to  make  the  young 
student  unable  to  help  himself.  I  am  greatly  pleased  with  the  plan  and 
with  its  execution." — Prof.  C.  B.  BRADLEY,  University  of  California ; 
Member  of  English  Conference  of  the  National  Committee  of  Ten. 

"  Differ  as  we  may  about  the  best  way  of  teaching  English  literature 
we  are  likely  to  agree  that  this  series  is  built  in  the  main  upon  the  right 
lines.  It  is  unexceptionable  in  its  outward  form  and  habit.  It  gives  us  in 
every  case  a  clearly  printed  text,  sufficiently  annotated,  but  not,  as  a  rule, 
overweighted  with  pedantic  comments ;  a  biographical  and  critical  intro- 
duction ;  a  bibliography,  through  which  the  student  can  find  his  way  to 
the  literary  and  historical  setting  of  the  particular  classic  on  which  he  is 
engaged  ;  a  chronological  table  and  some  hints  to  teachers — often  of  a 
most  suggestive  and  helpful  character.  In  every  case  we  thus  have  a 
book  edited  according  to  an  excellent  general  plan." — Prof.  H.  S.  PAN- 
COAST  in  The  Educational  Review. 


Special  terms  for  first  introduction  and  regular  supplies  will  be 
quoted  upon  application.     Address 

LONGMANS,   GREEN,   &  CO. 

91  and  93  Fifth  Avenue  -  -  New  York 


APR  1 4  1985 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


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